The Northern Review

Commentary from the Northern Tier of America

The Northern Review header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'Psychoanalysis'

Religion and Instincts and War

February 21st, 2009 · No Comments

Michel de Montaigne in the 16th Century wrote this:
It is evident to me that there is no enmity like the Christian. Our zeal does marvels when it seconds our bent for hatred, cruelty, greed, and rebellion. But when it comes to kindness and moderation, our religion will neither fly nor walk: it is not there, [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: American Culture · Foreign Relations · Philosophy · Politics · Psychoanalysis · United States

Judicial Campaigns and Money: A Form of Earwigging

February 15th, 2009 · Comments Off

The financing of judicial campaigns is a ecform of earwigging. Political forces, whether they be individuals or groups, seek the election of judicial candidates who will decide cases in certain favorable ways to the individual or group. In our electoral process money is speech. Political forces therefore spend money to get certain people elected. These [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: American Culture · Constitutional Questions · Lawyers and Judges · Politics · Psychoanalysis

Israel, Population Statistics and Freud’s Wisdom and Truth

January 26th, 2009 · Comments Off

What is Israel going to do?  If statistics prove true, Arabs will outnumber Jews in the areas in contest.  The Jewish people will not be able to secure control democratically.  It will have to use power.  This means Arabs will not be entitled to have any say.  The Arab people will have to be regarded as [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Determinism · Israel/Palestine · Middle East · Psychoanalysis

Determinism and Its Vicissitudes

January 24th, 2009 · No Comments

 In determinism it is argued that there is no room for free will.  That there is no responsibility of  human kind for anything which, in the course of cause and effect in the process of all that which is determined.  I tend to disagree.  There is an element of free will but it is a [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Determinism · Psychoanalysis

Determinism and Law:

January 24th, 2009 · No Comments

One of the wonders of the Internet is access to thought and creativity of so many people one would not have access to were it not for the Internet.  Here are some thoughts about determinism and law by Travis Morgan.
Laws and penalties are in place to condition us to act a certain way, if one doesn’t act [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Determinism · Law & Justice · Psychoanalysis

Determinism: A Quote from Prof. Ted Honderich

January 22nd, 2009 · Comments Off

Professor Ted Honderich (UK) said this in an interview:
Determinism is true. Everything that happens is just an effect — despite the stuff to the contrary in philosophical interpretations of Quantum Theory. All our decisions and actions are just effects. Thinking anything else is dreaming. So we aren’t free in the sense of being uncaused in [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Determinism · Psychoanalysis

Free Will and Judges and Juries

January 18th, 2009 · Comments Off

Seems the law is based on the notion there is complete free will, that there is no determinism which an individual does not have control over. When the law says there is criminal or civil liability it is saying the actor has made the wrong choice – that in the exercise of his or her [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Determinism · Law & Justice · Lawyers and Judges · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis

Free Will or Not?

January 18th, 2009 · Comments Off

Free will or not? At this point I am inclined to think all of our actions are determined. That is to say, everything we do or not do is the result of necessity. Along with this I think deep logic could tell us why we do that which we do, that it could explain the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Determinism · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis

Israel: More War Today

January 12th, 2009 · Comments Off

The people of Israel are at it again.  Another day of war.  The war they are waging is easy for them.  They have a captive enemy. 
I imagine and tribe of Native Americans relegated to a reservation located in a box canyon in New Mexico.  Some of the tribe’s young bucks got a little out of [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Israel/Palestine · Psychoanalysis

Israel

December 28th, 2008 · Comments Off

This morning I am trying to make sense out of Israel’s invasion of Gaza and the death and destruction she is currently inflicting (on a people who are in fact living on a “reservation” – in a refugee camp). One thought occurs to me: Is Israel engaging in the subconscious process of “identification with the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Psychoanalysis