Happiest war best (17 February 2009)

James, the sort of "hyper-adrenalized" state I associate with animal

passions(!), is something I associate with those who have experienced

the sort of brain development that follows a traumatizing/menancing

childhood. Love, empathy (the higher emotions!), I associate with

those whose course of brain development was determined by long

accompanying loving caregivers. I truly do believe that the

marvel of homo sapien sapiens is that their DNA hasn't trapped them

so that regardless of phylogenetic development, they remain

fundamentally, at the core, brutish (I understand that this isn't

quite what you're arguing). Instead, once freed from sadistic threats

(something I believe entirely possible), the homo sapien sapiens’ child

will become, for all intents and purposes, an entirely loving being.

I've read a lot (well, quite a bit) of the neuroscience (though it is
the work of Stanley Greenspan which ripples through my thoughts/
feelings right now), and, I feel sure, so have you. But it isn't all
this which convinces me: instead, it is my experience of people: I
have encountered those it cannot but seem misleading to attend to how
parts of them still draw them to be aggressive and such. I'm sure
your experience of people has lead you to different conclusions.

You know, what works on the battlefield is really something I'd have
to hear more about. I've heard various different generals argue
various different things. Moreover, I think a heck of a lot of
military officers like to imagine their troups as needing bravery more
than they do minds/self determination, to satisfy their own self-
assessment needs. Typical managerial (classist) think. Knowing/
suspecting this doesn't mean you're wrong, though. Also, not making a
connection between the field of sports and the battlefield might be
the right thing to do, but it certainly would go against the
(historical) grain.

Intellectualization as a defensive tack to ward of feelings of
abandonment, sounds interesting to me. I'm thinking that I associate
it mostly with early experiences of maternal emotional excess. What
is coming to mind is all the literature I've read where complaints
against unreason and for good reasoning (and the spartan life), go
hand-in-hand with tirades against (feminine--read: maternal) luxury
and indulgence.

Link: RealPsychohistory