Summing Up Saturday Part 4

Welcome to all my new followers hope you find this blog informative and helpful in your quest to make the perfect character and to better understand your self. Don’t forget to sign up for the 100 Followers Celebration. Remember you must let me know you want to participate on the 100 Followers Celebration page.

Monkey Man said...

The more blogs you visit and comment on the more returns you get. Setting your sights high is a good thing Go for it and good luck with finals.

My Thoughts-This is an excellent point. I have found the more I do to support others the natural consequence is to get support back.

Lisa Ricard Claro said...

Josh - I'm fascinated by the profiles you offer and can definitely see how understanding each one would make for deeper, better character portrayals. I do believe an MC could be a narcissist as long as he/she possesses other stellar characteristics. It would be a balancing act, but would definitely make for a colorful protagonist.

 My Thoughts- The balancing act is so important when creating our characters. We need them to be authentic in the world we create.

Brian Miller said...

ok def nightmares on the snails...lol...both of these books sound intriguing...for me the janitor one most def...janitors were always kinda mysterious...and the peppermint dust they used to clean the puke up...

My Thoughts- This one just made me laughJ

Emily said...

I think everyone we meet has a chance to inspire us, either through being such a good example of who we want to be when we "grow up" or as an example of what to avoid because we see the pain and misery in their lives. For me, my family is the largest group who have given me strength to overcome challenges. I've have been really lucky in that regard. There are also countless people who I have come in contact with either through the writing or religious communities that offer great support.

My Thoughts- I agree with this completely. We are influenced by everyone we come in contact with to some degree.  The opposite is also true we influence everyone we come in contact with to some degree, whether to become better people or worse.

Pam Torres said...

Whew! Do I feel psycho-analytical. I think it would be useful to have these schema descriptions on 3x5 cards and mix and match them when creating a character...mmm. Is it bad that I kept seeing my ex-husband in some of those...HeeHee...

My Thoughts- What a great tip on how to keep all the schemas organized and at our fingertips.

Lucy Adams said...

I know a woman who smiles no matter what she says. When she's being critical she smiles. When she's being complimentary, she smiles. When she talks about something that makes her angry or frustrates her, she smiles.

She's an incredibly difficult person to interact with, especially when her emotions are ambiguous. She makes it likely that the other person will always say the wrong thing.

Oh, did I mention she's easily insulted?

She would make a great character in a book.

Lucy

My Thoughts- Pearls would go to town on this person. This is a great example of a person using their body language to try and cover up their true emotions.

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What was your favorite post of the week? 

Gestalt Theory

Gestalt theory is a fascinating theory to me. It was developed by Fritz Pearls, a German born Psychiatrist. The whole point of the theory is to get people to become more aware of the here and now and to take responsibility. It has some really amazing points to it that I completely agree with. The delivery is not my style though because of how confrontational it is.

One of the things that Fritz does or a Gestaltian does is make the client aware of their physical movements and actions. They do this by pointing things out to them like: “What are you doing with your leg” or “I see your eyes are starting to tear up.” The psychologist is doing this throughout the session. It is interesting and if you want to watch Fritz doing it you can go here. Fritz also talks more about the theory in the beginning.

Okay what does this have to do with characterization? First of all, this blog, if you have noticed isn’t all about characterizationJ (but that’s besides the point) The point is that we/our characters say one thing but mean another. For example in the clip Gloria is smiling while she is talking about sad things. Fritz points this out to her. We all do this and Fritz would call us phonies. So, when we are creating our characters in our books remember that their actions, their body language do not always match what they are saying or feeling.

Body language doesn’t lie even when our words may beJ

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think we can lie with our body language? Can we ever truly mask our thoughts and feelings? Also, can another person really be good enough to interpret our body language accurately, like on the show Lie To ME?

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Schema’s and Traits Part 9

I am getting my information from “Schema Therapy a Practitioners Guide” by Jeffrey E. Young, Janet S. Klosko, and Marjorie E. Weishaar. The next domain is Over vigilance and Inhibition. This is our last domain with four Schemas. I decided we might as well knock them all out today. So, here we go.

The first one is Negativity/Pessimism. A person with this schema displays a lifelong focus on the negative while minimizing the positives. This schema can be learned by the parent or it is because of hardships as a child. The latter is harder to overcome because the person has experienced the loss and hardship first hand t an early age. The goal is to help people look at the future more objectively.

Emotional Inhibition is the second schema in this domain. People with this schema are excessively inhibited to express their emotions. They are affectively flat, no emotion and self-controlled rather than spontaneous. They not only hold back their anger but also their warmth. These people often have the obsessive compulsive personality disorder as well. These people are rigid and inflexible. The goal is to help them become more emotionally expressive.

A person with the Unrelenting Standards/Hypercriticalness schema present as perfectionistic and driven. They feel they must reach unrealistic high standards all the time. These standards are internalized therefore they do not change these expectations based on others expectations. They do it because they “should” not because they want anything from it. They feel a lot of pressure to achieve. Failing means 95%. It is not only difficult to have unrelenting standards but it is also difficult to be around someone who has unrelenting standards. These people are workaholics. The goal is to help people accomplish less and to do it not as perfectly.

The final schema is Punitiveness. People with this schema believe that people, including themselves, should be punished harshly for their mistakes. They are moralistic and intolerant, and have a difficult time with forgiving others and themselves of their mistakes. People should not be forgiven but should be punished, no excuses permitted. The goal is to overcome this belief of punitiveness and be more forgiving.

Well there you have it all of the schemas you would ever want to know about. Thanks for staying tuned in and for your wonderful comments throughout.  Which is your favorite schema? What have you learned about yourself, others and most importantly of course your characters? What schema have you incorporated into your stories? And how many of you were saying each day, “That’s me?” (BTW that is a natural phenomenon while going through a diagnostic course  to feel like you fit all of the diagnosisJ