We're All Mad Here, so Eat a Rock / Abbie Hedden

 I know that I bring this up a lot, but I can't help it. There's a reason it's my major; I love psychology! It's my passion. To see how people's brains work, or don't work, and how they process things is just so interesting to me. What I want to highlight from this week's reading is an emotion that may seem trivial, but I think is pivotal to most of the stories we've read this semester. I don't know if there's a word that can fully encompass this emotion, but the closest one may be paranoia. Throughout our readings, specifically in Oedipus and in Theogeny, something that pretty much always leads to downfall is an amalgation of arrogance, paranoia, power, rage, and the insanity that comes from those things. Oedipus and Kronos both have a position of power. Their position is threatened, so they take drastic measures to thwart it (read: attack their family and loved ones). However, both of them are seemingly blind for the majority of their own stories. It took multiple people confirming and affirming Oedipus's story for him to see his downfall. He was blind to the truth - and later blind in general. Kronos was also blind in that he didn't notice that the "baby Zeus" Rhea handed to him was literally a rock. I think this is a psychological phenomenon that is occuring. I understand that my proof is from two fictional characters, but they portray very human flaws. When protecting our power, humans have a tendency to become blind to bigger and better things. We like to grasp things like control and authority, but we lose grip on things like love and compassion. We become blind to things that would truly help us in the long run.

PS Haylee Lynd and Isabelle Ferguson