IDL Paper (Insight w/ others)

The second half of the unit was all about our experience with others. We discussed the “conversation” as its own entity. We talked about the dynamics of the conversation, specifically the roadblocks that come between people whilst attempting to converse empathetically. Empathy as defined by Wikipedia is one's ability to recognize, perceive and feel directly the emotion of another. We did many exercises to try to deepen our understanding of empathy and how to be empathetic towards other people specifically during “the conversation”. We tried to pay close attention to the dynamics of or own conversations, as well as class models, to deepen our knowledge of or connection to other people.
The next idea we explored was about touching. This was essentially a deconstructing of the way that we interact physically with one another. I think the part that I not only enjoyed learning the most, but also was also the most beneficial to me was how to give hand massages based on old Chinese medicine. The “one hundred years spot” is where the thumb and pointer finger intersect, in Chinese tradition this spot when massaged is supposed to relieve so much stress that the person who is receiving the massage lives to be one hundred (hence the name).
Another major part of this course was attempting to figure out and than analyze the reasons that we as humans are uncomfortable about touching. We tried different exercises to help us figure out our own comfort levels such as having a conversation with a partner for five minutes and touching them in a different way each time. These exercises turned out to be for the most part extremely awkward. This fact was true for most of the class and is a perfect example of Humans lack of comfort with touching others or being touched. We dissected this idea and had many interesting theories for why this is so. The one that I most remember is the idea of there being a “Geography of Anatomy” which is why one might feel less uncomfortable with someone touching there chest than say their hand. The chest is closer to the so-called (by western society) “private parts” thus obviously less comfortable. Were human's meant to be like this, or is this just another example of an extraordinarily bad case of conditioning. I tend to think the latter.
We watched a video, which depicted how it is fundamental to a baby’s psychological development to be touched; the same is even true for toddlers. At what age than do we stop needing to be touched and or crave physical interaction? I don’t think we ever do, thus I can conclude by saying our society uses stigmas and the illusion of “social norms” to control us and not only keep us disassociated with our own bodies but also other people’s.