Nothing I have read has convinced me more of the innate callousness and insensitivity to be found in the tribalism we prefer to call 'society' than this account of J. D. Salinger's experience. Salinger was the author of the famous novel, Catcher in the Rye and short stories that are sometimes claimed to be the … Continue reading Rescuing Shyness|the hunting down of a shy hero |J. D. Salinger
Autism and Love-Shyness | A message to the Incels
Yes, this is a message to the Incels from my younger self. When I published the recent post, Toronto Van Rampage III | Alek Minassian and the Incels, I didn't explain that when I was 17 yrs old I was well on my way to being one of them. Based on psychologist Brian Gilmartin's research … Continue reading Autism and Love-Shyness | A message to the Incels
Autism’s lost loners | James Michener
Because the deceased author James Michener will be a major character in my next novel, now wandering the world alone as a ghost, I've been thinking a lot about him. I realized today that he is another candidate for these lists of people who might belong on the spectrum. For he was a loner among … Continue reading Autism’s lost loners | James Michener
Dreams | Robert L. Van de Castle – Our Dreaming Mind |all you wanted to know about dreams and more
Because I've been studying dreams since I was a boy, every now and then I think it's time for me to write my own book about dreams. But each time that happens I immediately think of psychologist Robert L. Van de Castle’s monumental book, Our Dreaming Mind and I discard the thought. It’s a book … Continue reading Dreams | Robert L. Van de Castle – Our Dreaming Mind |all you wanted to know about dreams and more
Highly Sensitive People in an Insensitive World
Given how insensitivity is running rampant around the world now, I think its time to take another look at the Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP. When I say running rampant, just look around you. People get promoted in corporations by being insensitive to those who get in their way. Others gain fame by trampling the … Continue reading Highly Sensitive People in an Insensitive World
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s warning about Incels and/or Shy Loners
Writing since the 1970s, Philip Zimbardo is one of the few psychologists who has devoted much of his career to shyness. In a Mar 31, 2016 post in Psychology Today, "The New Shyness -How virtual reality has made social Isolation more seductive than ever before", Zimbardo provided a very interesting update. He says shyness is … Continue reading Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s warning about Incels and/or Shy Loners
Writing Fiction | Good and bad titles
One afternoon some years ago I was driving through the spring countryside with my 90 year-old mother when she announced that she had just finished reading my new novel, The Birdcatcher. That was no mean feat, given that she was already going blind and could only read with a small magnifier and her face almost … Continue reading Writing Fiction | Good and bad titles
Shyness | What does a loner know?
My perspective on shyness is different because it's the perspective of a loner. During my life I've often been called shy, sensitive, or introverted. But several people, at different times, have also told me that I was the most independent person they had ever met. Well, that strong independence is genetic. It's common on both … Continue reading Shyness | What does a loner know?
Shyness vs Everything else |the problem with diagnoses
When I was a boy, I was intensely shy, more avoidant than anyone else I met then in any of the schools I attended. No one in the working-class neighborhood of the North-American steel town where I grew up had heard of 'autism', but my behavior fit autism pretty well. If I got myself assessed … Continue reading Shyness vs Everything else |the problem with diagnoses
Alan Conrad 