I was thinking today about assumptions I've had about psychology.

I was really convinced in the value of uncovering what is hidden in yourself so it would not control your actions from the inside of you. Speaking or expressing internal struggles brought what was concerning to to the light of reason or at least

expression them brought them to awareness so you could recognize them when they came along. I came to actually welcome cartharsis, to relish it; I would even gleefully exaggerate the problem. I thought diving into what seemed to be the problem helped me unravel it and recognize it so that later I could avoid it's stranglehold.

However, I have learned that sometimes, catharsis takes you where you don't really need to go and is useless in "dealing with" problems.

Thinking how anger seems to be a "pure" emotion - meaning it seems to act as a foundation to other emotions. I guess that isn't always true about anger, but I'm entertaining the hypothesis here.

The exception that comes to mind is anger that arises from wanting to avoid feeling another emotion that doesn't necessarily have to be fear, say grief, powerlessness, envy, etc.
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As I listen to someone speak or write, I'm first paying attention to how they put the building blocks of language together - what they associate, how they jump from one subject to the next, how they tag similarity and difference; where they go when they make these associative leaps.

I threatened to continue the conversation I started about how the structure of language dictates what you can say or think as you're using it.

I'm reminded of Whorf's work.

It was 1976, just after I'd broken up with the love of my life who had gotten into dealing drugs. I was on RCA Beach. It was the first sunny weekend in April after a storm. The six foot surf was too rough to go bodysurfing. There were other interesting things to watch; people were hangliding from the cliffs, landing on the remote beach. Guessing I was the only person watching, when I noticed that the guy who was hangliding and trying to land on the beach was about to land in crotch-deep surf.

Somehow, I can just approached doing something that I've never done before - a skill, a game - and somehow, I can do it - usually at a mid-range skill level, quite far beyond any familiarity that I might have to know what I'm doing. Now, some people would call that "talent," but after experiencing "beginner's luck" many, many times, I think it's "intuition."

The other example of intuition is that I can sometimes dream original music - usually far beyond my ability to play it.
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