Prehistoric Psychobabble pt. 2: Or, Why do they bother to make porn?

First off, I want to point out that this is somewhat mature subject matter so if you don’t think you can read it without giggling to yourself, you might want to stop here. I don’t think my words are definitive in the least, more like musings, but I do think I’m onto something.


While the connection between pornography and the basic psychology between men and women may be obvious, sit back and think about it for a moment. Is it really?

There aren’t a lot of interpersonal relationships in pornography beyond the corporeal anyway. Really, porn sex is almost a violent act as it’s reduced to the basic mechanics with the addition of uncomfortable positions and odd situating. About the only positive point is that a guy in a porno is more likely to perform cunnilingus in porn than in real life. The same of the reciprocal to such and really, that’s kind of a shame.

The biological action is pretty much what porn focuses on – and not just with the embarrassing close-ups I mean. But that’s really where the connection seems to be made.

In the introduction to Prehistoric Psychobabble, I spoke of he reptilian brain (called the id by Sigmund Freud) and my preference to refer to it as the infant mind. So let’s start there.

If you’re familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it starts with survival or the basic needs for such anyway.

From a biological standpoint, there are about four real requirements for survival – food, water, shelter and procreation.

Food and water often comes down to the ability to obtain such. I often joke that basic physiology reveals me as a predator because of the eyes on the front of my head for seeking rather than on the sides for evading and canines. But many predators have strongly peripheral binocular vision so that’s not really much of a tell. Add to that the fact that human’s canines aren’t particularly pronounced, and haven’t been for centuries, and you realize how flimsy that argument is as well.

No, our basic design is that of an omnivore. We have the ability and genetic predisposition to seek out both animal and vegetable protein.

This means that by our very makeup we’re intended, as are all living things, to compete for nutrients.

As we have become more adept at obtaining these basic needs, we have been able to drop our guards to a limited extent, but the nature is still there. The subconscious belief that we are competing for the basics is still there. And as money has become part of the picture, competition for such has entered the fray as well.

All animals have this drive to a certain extent. There is this need for self-preservation, but we’ve no proof that they seek ill to befall others unless as a direct result of confrontation. That is just a case of survival instinct so selfishness isn’t really part of the proceedings.

Humans, on the other hand, do have the tendency of wishing ill on the others. We label them in whatever way we choose which is where prejudices are able to take a stronger root. (The detection of differences is another animal trait as almost all animals can tell slight differences and tend to treat “others” differently.) The root is already there, but so too is the ability to reason. It is already there for us and other higher order animals or else problem-solving skills would be unable to take root either.

So we tag on ethnic slurs, we separate based on pigment, sex, religion – our minds are constantly seeking to relegate that around us into compartments and we see each other as things to be neatly categorized as well.

Now here is where I think the mind becomes more like that of an infant.

We are all willing to accept, as a rote, that infants know how the mother is feeling. We’ve all been told such and studies show that the child is attuned to mother’s moods and such. Not only that, but we also know that children commonly display an affection for their mother from an early age and a love is born.

But the suckling child therefore knows that the mother is hurting when she becomes chaffed, if milk production isn’t keeping pace with the growing child or when the teeth begin to come in. So this infant is aware that seeking sustenance is causing another pain. Not just any other, but the person that means more to it than anything else in the world. On a certain level, their mother is their world.

It’s not greed, don’t get me wrong. I did think that this was a certain level of evil for some time but I’ve come to believe that it’s a natural, indeed to a certain extent necessary aggression.

But to call that part of our brain that stores the aggression and darkest parts of our minds the reptilian brain, is silly. Reptiles operate purely on instinct and therefore have no real understanding that what they are doing is causing any harm. It’s a lack of progression in thinking that I’m referring too.

Psychologists have said for years that there is a point where people become aware that the world goes on when they close their eyes. The acceptance of such is one of the reasons that young children are supposed to suddenly develop aversions to sleep as they’re afraid of what they’re missing. But the infant understands that its eyes may be closed, but their mother is still there. So the realization may be there, but really, it’s just a progression into a higher thinking level. And I hold that we are somewhat unique in questioning that there is anyone or anything else there to begin with, putting the infant mind on a higher plane than that of the reptile.

But there’s still the question of the knowledge that gaining sustenance is hurting mom.

This progression of this aggression is necessary for us to make the jump to eating animals and therefore allowing us a significant source of protein. But it also allows us to wish ill on others.

I sometimes think it silly to liken higher thinking to such a thing. But then I think, are we truly doing evil if we don’t know we’re harming another?

Whales have no idea how many countless krill they kill on a daily basis. Could they do so if they thought of each of them as a unique and individual being?

So we’re left to see the idea of the infant mind being of a higher order, but slightly more aggressive than the reptilian mind, specifically because it can reason and therefore know that the consequences for it’s actions will be paid for by another.

In Freud’s terms, I think that this function lies between the id and the superego, leaning toward the id. But it serves as the conduit between these two components of our consciousness. So the lower thinking portion will have the dark thought; the infant mind refines it and then it comes to our conscious thoughts.

The comedy series Scrubs did a great job of showing this actually. One character had a boyfriend and her male friend asked her to study something with him, or something like that. When the male friend was asked what he thought was going to happen he imagined himself and the young lady on a rowboat. They move closer, as if to kiss, and then we see that the boyfriend is tied up on the bottom of the boat, the pair toss him over the side to his death and then embrace.

Silly, of course, but it shows the thoughts that flash in a person’s head. The idea of causing harm to another to get what we want is one of the things that separates us from the animals. We know we’re hurting the other person.

But it’s not confined to pain, it’s actually the basis of rationalizing almost anything. And it can take all sorts of forms.

Which brings us back to porn and procreation.

In order to survive we need food, water, shelter and to procreate thereby surviving by passing our genes along the way. Food and water, we covered, shelter, is pretty much all around us but procreation … the basic principles of hunting and gathering no longer quite apply.

Oh, they’re there to some extent, but procreation requires that the other party agree to such. And at first I thought that was the point behind porn.

Speaking with a pal, he said something along the lines of being able to believe that women would do that in reference to what they’d seen in a porn film. That seemed logical to me. In truth, it’s the case to a large extent. But I think it’s more than that now. (Odd how insomnia and a wish to occupy a bored mind lets ideas bounce and bake in your mind.)

I think porn plays to that place where id and infant meet. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of our minds we see these images and a teeny portion of our mind allows us to think it’s real. To those that self gratify while watching, it becomes harder to distinguish where the reality of the situation ends. Not in the super ego or ego, it’s quite clear there, but deeper.

For the most part, this boils down to porn representing actual sex to that tiny portion of the mind. To that small expanse driven to spread the genetic material. Which also explains why men tend to gravitate more toward porn than women as some conjecture that males look to spread their seed over a broader spectrum than women. Owed mostly to the investment in gestation and the ability for the woman to know the child is theirs. Recent studies support the idea of the child looking more like the father in the first 3 years owing to the idea that this makes the father feel more of a connection.

The idea has been percolating in my mind, for the past month or so, that this is where the connection is made. Meaning that porn predominantly prospers per proliferation predisposition. :D

Basically, porn makes people think they have had sex in the deep recesses of their mind and so sex is readily available for cover price.

Of course, it could all just be that guys likes neekid womens.


Kind of rambling I know, but I usually just write stuff on the fly and this is no exception. The concepts have been running in my head for quite a while now, and the connection locked about a month and a half ago. I’d been looking for a reason to step back into the Pre-Psych topic and knew that I wanted to start with an explanation of the infant and reptilian minds. While I believe the two distinct, I think that they’re often referred to as one and the same in pop psychology. And I believe it’s a disservice for humans to not own up to our vices. How else can we face and try to overcome them/

And one last thing. While I think we all have these thought processes inside us, I also believe that we have the ability to overcome them. Dark thought always percolate in the recesses of our minds after all, its’ what we do with that, and our willingness to look beyond ourselves that truly make us human. Why else does light shine so bright in the darkness?

Putting asside history's rough draft

I got my start in journalism in January of 1999.

I was four weeks from graduating from Texas State Technical College with an associate of applied science degree in Digital Imaging Technology. I hadn't even applied for the job that I got.

I'd applied to fill an opening for a copy editor, which is basically a page designer of the daily pages with very little editing involved, and I'd put in an application and sent in my portfolio. I was never called back.

After two weeks, I just wanted my portfolio back to send in for other jobs. So I called the managing editor and she said I could come in and get it any time. I had an hour between the end of my morning classes and the time I had to report in to work, so I went to pick up my portfolio.

I thought it would just be handed over until she came to the reception area and I saw that she didn't have it with her. Then she asked if she could see me in her office.

Turns out the Features editor was on his way out, and they were in the process of creating an entertainment supplement. I had been working in a sign shop for two years and the managing editor liked that I had experience. She interviewed me for an hour asking various questions about choiced I'd made in designs that I'd submitted. I admitted that some choices were made because of time limitations and other constraints. Explained that I often gave myself a handicap when working on school projects because I knew that in the real world there would be limitations. (The one that frustrated my instructors the most, and I think taught me the most, was deciding that I would only work in black and white for one semester, because it's cheaper to reproduce and I knew cost would be an issue for some clients in the future.)

After the hour she called in the woman who was going to take over the Features editor position and the pair of them grilled me for another hour. (I would have left sooner as I was running late for work, but I knew the interview was going well and desperately wanted out of my current possition.) And then they said that they were going to call my references and would give me a call when they had a decision.

I expected to be waiting another week or so.

They called me at work 10 minutes later and asked if I could start that day. I said yes.

When I told my employers that I was giving my two weeks notice, they were stunned. I found a replacement and spent the next two weeks training him, designing the new entertainment supplement (they'd only had a logo that they didn't' like and so I had to redesign that too) and going to school full-time.

When I was first introduced around, by the managing editor, she literally did a double take when I asked the head of production if there was anything about the paper or presses that I should be aware of when designing. He did the same. I learned that the presses ran a little heavy on the cyan and had a 10% dot gain.

I was hooked from day one. I've never thought about leaving the fourth estate since. Whenever thinking of looking for a new job, leaving history's first draft behind never crossed my mind.

Until now.

I've been growing so wearly of all the stupid little politics at work and all of the grind of crap that is heaped upon me.

Added to that, I've taken on more than my fair share, always go above and beyond to produce and have sought to constantly learn more and do an even better job than expected. Constantly striving and despite being hobbled by those around me.

But I deeply love journalism.

Still, the idea of leaving is heavy in my mind of late. Advertising seems a fun place to go, but I'm not certain.

Yesterday, I spoke with my immediate supervisor about this, among other sinking feeling. He spoke to me first as a boss and assured me that I'm much more valued in the company than I think and that all management thinks a lot of me.

Then he said that, as a friend, he hopes that I don't leave the industry. He said that he feels I'm an asset to the industry, not just the paper but the industry.

It was really nice to hear. Don't know how much I buy it and how much of it is just trying to make a pal feel better, or even an employer trying to stroke an employee's ego, but it was nice to hear.

I don't know if I'll be leaving the industry. I know that I love what I do, but haven't really felt any real drive in a while.

I still produce on a consistent basis, I'm still doing a solid job, but I find that going above and beyond feels almost hollow. When you know your big reward is just a paycheck — and that the same can be said of those who do the bare minimum, sometimes less than such — it hold less sway.

So at this point, I'm not sure if I produce as consistently, solidly and aggressively because I'm driven by my job, or if I just don't know how to do less. It seems more likely that I just don't know any better.

Still, I honestly love what I do, even if I don't really love the job itself anymore.

prehistoric psychobabble

This will probably end up being a series that I'll check in on when the fancy strikes me. It's a freaking tome though.

I've been making my case, in reaction to a few other folks submissions, that the physiology, psychology and sociology have to be looked at as a whole. The idea being based on the principles that I have outlined for others in my argument for the infant mind in place of the more popular reptilian mind that is being referred to in most of the popular psyche stories in magazines ranging from Time to National Geographic to People.

The idea of the reptilian mind is easy and fun to grasp because of the popular terminology of someone being cold hearted, and other terms that would lean towards a cold blooded creature as the archetype to refer to someone as unfeeling or unemotional.

I prefer the use of the term, the infant mind. This allows us to refer to such selfishness as completely human and therefore opens the door to the fact that humans are animals at the base.

Even referring to many of the standards of psychology like "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" and the works of B. F. Skinner, we can see the selfish aspects of our psyche.

Sociology is merely an expansion of psychology to include the herding mentality inherent in many creatures, most at their core I personally believe. This allows the mind to release levels of control and therefore to be led into situations that they would ordinarily shun, if not for having allowed themselves to be swept up into the group think. Mob mentality is an example of this, but only an extreme case of such. Such small instances as the social drinker reaction are part of the same core idea.

But all of these things originate in the self and that is what I want to start this series by focusing on.

Weakest link
Most English speaking individuals are familiar with the term weakest link which refers to the larger maxim of a chain only being as strong as it's weakest link. While this direct phrase may not translate directly, the idea translates in to almost every language.

This principal behind this can go in the reverse as well, allowing that a strong leader, or strong member of a group, can help shape the overall strength of the group. Would the Bulls have been as dominant without Michael Jordan, for example? These strong individuals can boost the level of contribution by those around them thereby affecting the overall power of the group. Jordan would not likely have been in so strong a position were it not for Scotty Pippen for instance.

This same principal applies to many instances of groups working toward a common goal. It can be seen in the everyday workplace and is often applied by educators when a grading curve is applied.

The powerful individual does risk leaving the group behind. Should they be too far above their peers, they may come to be resented. Likewise if a weak individual in an organization sets too visible a poor example, others may grow envious of the fact that the weaker individuals benefit from their toil and therefore seek to lower their standards in an attempt to profit in the same manner as the lowest common denominator.

This is the example I use to show why communism, like virtually all ism mentalities, is faulty. It fails to take into account sloth and envy. The seven deadly sins can wreak havoc on any system that humans are allowed to participate in and play into the infant mentality.


Infancy and mentality
The idea of the reptilian brain is a problem, in my mind, as it fails to recognize that we as humans are animals at our core.

Many of our actions are the same and instincts can be seen when we strip away the intellectual veneer that we like to apply to our actions. I lean toward the notion of an infant mentality as infants are unaware that all that is around them is living and has needs of their own. Stripped to the infant, we seek out the lowest level of Maslow's needs, food and well being.

That our mother's nipple be hurt is not a consideration, nor is the relative discomfort of the figure that we recognize mostly as the source of care. This is not to say that motherhood does not create a special bond with children, but it is at its root a biological connection. It is when the higher mind comes into play that Munchausen by Proxy, and other mental maladies, becomes a possibility.

But the higher mind is already beginning to form connections in the infant so that as the child's mental faculties grow so does the connection. Babies, at a very young age, emulate and react to their mother's emotions and physical well being. The pathways are being set at this point. To a certain extent I believe that this is happening in the later period in the womb as well and accounts for some children reacting to their mother's emotional discord. But usually such instances are only noted in cases of a strong emotional reaction, which usually elicits a physiological response. In this way, I believe the pathways to be set.

Likewise, infants begin to note that their mother is extremely protective of them and this begins to reciprocate, as the child grows older. It can be seen very early in troubled homes when the mother is in a threatened position, the child will often make use of what little facilities are available to it and cause whatever interaction with its surroundings that it can. Crying, excretions and gross body movements are all examples of this. But they are all instances of the higher mentality beginning to assert itself.

The infant, or fetal mentality, allows only the realization of self. After all, they encompass almost the entire known universe in the womb; it is a learned later that there is a world beyond their skin. Some never truly make this leap and usually fall into categories of dementia, or sociopathy. Although it should be noted that those are extreme examples and in the case of dementia, there are chemical markers to go along with it.

This infant mentality was created from our core and is thus a holdover from our primitive makeup.


Ice age bodies
The truth is, for all our arguments of how advanced we have become, our bodies have changed little since the ice age. This has been demonstrated by the feast/famine reaction that our bodies take to how much we eat. If we are eating multiple small meals throughout the day, our bodies assume it is a time of plenty and therefore don't bother storing food as fat. There is no reason for the expenditure of energy to maintain stocks after all. When we eat only one meal a day, our body assumes that we are in a time of famine and thus stores as much as possible.

The fact that such a system is still in place leans to the idea of our bodies changing little. Add to that the panic reaction and there is more proof.

Fight of flight is a regular reaction where our bodies respond to danger by secreting adrenaline in an attempt to help us flee of fight. The fact that tests show our intellectual capacity drops an average of 20% is further proof that our bodies are conserving resources for physical exertion. We are conserving a portion of the energies we would use to think, in order to help us move more efficiently.
But the panic mentality is different. It is a point at which we sacrifice our reasoning capabilities in favor of self-preservation. It is this sort of reaction that leads a herd of antelope into a stream filled with Nile crocodiles. The mind stops reasoning and looks for someone else to do the thinking instead. In the absence of such, instinct takes over. In the case of the antelope, herding is the standard reaction, relying on the strength in numbers.

But is there really a need for blind panic. The idea seems to have some level of merit, but wouldn't simple fight of flight make more sense in this day and age? Panic tends to lead to an inability to cope with a situation after all.

These physical forces and physiological reactions all play into the way that we think and therefore how we think in a group. Would we rationally imagine many of the terrors that have come to take their place in our minds?


Boogey men and weiners
Vagina dentata is one of the topics that prompted the start of this tome. The idea of a vagina with teeth to emasculate is a popular theme that goes back quite a ways and never seems to go away. Or am I the only one that was freaking out during Jedi? (Thanks for the reminder Phillip.)

It is, of course, an irrational fear but it is likely hardwired into our systems.
When studying to be a surgical technician (I never completed the training but did log a lot of clinical time) I studied the effects of impending surgery on patients' psyche. One fear surprised me in particular and applies here, although I didn't recall when responding to the aforementioned topic when first presented with it.
Boys, from the ages of 4 through their early teens, chief concern is that they'll awake from surgery with their penis removed.

The only other issue that registers in the neighborhood is if they're told they're going to be "put to sleep" for the surgery.

Many children have had a pet put euthanized or know someone who has, so the phrase holds the terror that they will never awaken. This tests across gender lines however, and is directly tied into a memory as the source of the fear so it is not a primordial fear aside from the fear of death. But that connection has to be made by the rational, and thus higher order, portion of the mind.

This means that the idea of emasculation is tied in with the male psyche from a young age. Furthermore, I think the inability to under stand the fairer, and in many ways stronger, sex has led to a great deal of evil being heaped upon women.

Hypocratis was convinced that women were inherently crazy and that it stemmed from their uterus. An example of such and thus an example of women as a source of fear, can be shown in a simple term.

Medical terminology is based on an elaborate system of prefixes and suffixes (largely laid out by Hyp himself) one tied to the other to create terms for afflictions. The prefix hyst- is tied to the uterus, hence hysterectomy (-ectomy being a suffix for removal) is the removal of the uterus.

The aforementioned connection, by Hypocratis, between the uterus and insanity is therefore demonstrated by a common term.

He named crazy, "hysteria."

drip drop

The copper sky hangs overhead
The wind is still and calm
And all about, as the evening comes
You feel unspoken alarm.

The cloud ingress is calm and slow
No haste in the silent passage
Their pregnant bodies graceful trip
Soon sends a crackling message

kraka-THOOM!

An electrical smile cross the celestial veil
And hairs on arms and neck leap
The air is now charged and the sky opens up
And you heart pounds rather than beats.

But the the rain pours down
Cold clear liquid pearls
Sweet droplets of moisture
That drench your world.

And the child inside
Shrieks filled with glee
Wanting nothing more
Than to dance in the street

Feet cold and bare
Hair matted and drenched
With a smile on your face
In mid gallivant.

Then the night turns to day
A twisted web of light
And you know what’s coming
And you tremble with fright

kra-ka-BOOM

Shouts the sky
And your bones shake
You hear glassware tinkle
Like from a small quake

And now your afraid
Of the power in the sky
That rattles the windows
And fills you with fright

Then you see a small puddle
Dancing with each drop
And your filled with glee
From bottom to top

Storms can be scary
When the thunder screams
But sweet summer showers
Remain children’s dream

And the krackle and boom
May fill you with dread
And leave little children
Hiding under beds

But the draw of the shower
And dancing in puddles
Or the soft tapping sound
That’s perfect for cuddles

And there’s something about
The smell or rain in the wind
That fills you with glee
And once again you’re a kid.

Been thinking about rain lately. Those that live in my area know why. But I just think the rain is always cool. It always elicits an emotional response.

... Or it finds you running to the parking lot to roll up your windowns.

Don't really think the poem is all that good, just found myself moved to write it, and I kind of enjoy it.

I wrote a book

When I was in college, there was this guy that was always doing projects around one story. It was a sci-fi story and he was constantly designing space ships, villians and movie posters. He had the plan to take the screenplay to 20th Century Fox, “because they’ve always been more open to science fiction.” I can’t think of one project that we had, the first three semesters, that he didn’t slant toward his master work.

All of it based on a book that he hadn’t written yet.

So, I have this book.


Click to see the listing and/or order it.

I keep planning on writing a proper press release, but despite my attempt at a nonchalant demener, I keep thinking, “Holy crap, I have a book.” And that keeps me from thinking too straight at the moment. So this is my soft launch, less soft than the one in my blog but harder than the select mailings of last week.

I’m now one step ahead of the guy in college.