DISCUSSION TOPIC: MENTAL ILLNESS AND OTHER TRAITS

MENTAL ILLNESS AND OTHER TRAITS
by Georgevine Moss

Mental illness has many forms. It can be temporary or life-lasting. It can be mild or severe. It is divided into many categories, each one with many different symptoms and as many different causes. It is a condition of the mind, and as long as everyone agrees that each mind is unique, then no one condition can be the same.

These days, physiology and socio-environmental elements are both considered as contributing factors in the manifestation of mental illness. Here, strictly from a layman’s point of view, we will reference the phenomenon of the HIKIKOMORI to address the latter and use it to spark a debate about the need for social change. We will also refer to the SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY as an example of the former, and try to make a connection between the two factors.

The Japanese term Hikikomori is used to describe the individuals, teenagers and young adults, who have chosen to live at home, in isolation, for a long period of time, shunning social interaction, due to various personal or social reasons.

Two reasons cited for the emergence of the Hikikomori in Japan are interrelated. One is the educational system and the other is the economy. Simply put, the educational system is very demanding from start to finish (school to university) and then there comes the point where a flat economy and a bad job market leave these individuals without a clear goal in sight, without purpose in life, and a feeling of disappointment.

One could argue that these conditions aren’t unique to Japan. Students today face tremendous pressure in order to have a chance at higher education, a chance they might not even get despite having worked hard. Global economic conditions aren’t exactly shining a bright light on the future for them either, cutting dreams and desires short with impersonal ease.

Two differences between Japan and other countries could be found in culture, as in cultural pressure to excel, and length of time, when talking about the pressure resulting from a bad economy. But can we not say that the possibilities are there for the Hikikomori to become a more widespread phenomenon?

On the other hand, what if the Hikikomori condition is more than an expression of social pressures on specific individuals, more than a form of mental illness? What if it is the breeding ground of a shift? A shift where one’s life goals and his very purpose of living as perceived by the previous generation change? A shift that once is in gear will affect everyone?

The possibility is plausible. Social standards, practices and expectations have changed to a high degree. One may only consider the advancement of technology and its integration into daily, personal and professional, life to see a great part of that change. As for education and work, society has moved from the need for basic education to the need for higher and higher forms, and from unskilled labor to skilled labor etc. All these changes seem like a logical progression, natural advancement. But at the level we find ourselves today what is the next logical step?

If we only consider the educational system and the dire economy as reasons for the existence of the Hikikomori we could make the possibility seem even stronger. First, let’s, very naively, try to bring down the educational system as a reason behind the Hikikomori phenomenon.

If you search for a person to tell you of a difficult experience he had to go through that made him better at dealing with similar situations in the future it is very likely that you will find one. Traumatic experiences make you tough. To some degree at least, you would agree that that is true.

By that logic, a high pressure educational system renders young adults more than capable of dealing with the pressures and responsibilities of the life after. In fact, life after school would be more likely to look better in terms of benefits and rewards, and thus less stressful. But then comes the life after, and there’s no future, no stepping stone you can use to move forward, to engage and become a part of society. Not only that, but personal goals seem to be amiss or non-existent. What’s next? What if a change is needed, a change in expectations of what the next step should be, or even a radical change that starts from the beginning of the natural line of progression (i.e. education)? What is the next step in this natural line of advancement? And is it something strictly personal or something so broad as to warrant a social change?

Lastly, what if the Hikikomori aren’t “weak” or impaired in some way due to their physiology, but instead are in some way more advanced because of it? What if those people are the ones who, before all others, are capable to understand that a different course is needed? An insight that gets them stuck?

A 2012 Scientific American article talks about the existence of a gene variation-based link between creativity and eccentricity. Due to this variation, high intelligent people with schizoid personality, for instance, process information differently which may lead them to incredible insight. So what if?

For more information on this last subject you can check a related article, titled The Link Between Creativity and Eccentricity.

Free Short Story: The Last Christmas before the End of the World

The Last Christmas before the End of the World

by Georgevine Moss


There was only one week left for Christmas. Benny swooped up his six year old daughter Grace from the playroom and tricked his teenage son Mark into coming to the basement with promises of letting him have the car for the weekend. Yes, he was that desperate.

Everything was going from bad to worse. Everything he tried to fix at home collapsed in his hands, his work…he didn’t even want to think what was happening at work. Even his wife Annie seemed to be in a rut of bad luck. She had been dieting and exercising for weeks now and the results were non-existent. What the hell was going on? Maybe there was nothing he could do about everything else that was going on, but the moment you diet and don’t lose any weight is probably the moment the world is going to end.

He took the kids to the farthest corner of the basement and sat them down on the floor as if the ending was near.

“Come on, dad. What do you want? I’ve got stuff to do,” Mark said.

Mark was already annoyed. Benny couldn’t tell if this was yet another bad sign. Mark had been permanently annoyed for almost three years now. Other parents had told him this was normal. Some other people had told him that medication might be good for him. The internet didn’t make things any better either. According to his research his son was either a psychopath or an angry teen in need of…love, was it? He didn’t know. His research was inconclusive of what such a teen might need. Looking on the internet for answers wasn’t a total waste of time though. After reading a medicated teenager’s story on the Huffington Post he was certain that going down the pill road was a definite no, no. And it had nothing to do with cost. Imagine that…

“Kids, what I’m about to tell you is really important.”

Grace gasped. “Are we going to die, daddy?”

Where did that come from? Should he start worrying about Grace too now? “What? No. No, we aren’t going to die. Why did you think that?”

“Mark told me that bad stuff is going to happen in the world and we are all going to die.”

He should have known. Of all the things he could be doing Mark seemed to take particular joy in reading weird stuff online and later recount them to Grace. Was THAT a bad sign? “Well,” he said. Before going on he threw a glance at Mark. He didn’t do it as a way to disapprove of Mark’s actions he just wanted to see if he was smiling. He was. “Bad stuff has been happening all over the world in 2011 too Grace so…”

Grace interrupted him with another dramatic gasp. “We are going to die?”

“No. No.” Shit. What was he thinking? “Grace,” he said. “I don’t know what is going to happen in 2012 but no one is going to die.”

Grace looked at him like a puppy. Not a confused, can’t-tell-I’m-looking-at-my-own-reflection-in-the- mirror puppy, but a really smart puppy that just wants to play with you. “No one?”

Trick question, trick question. “No one.”

“Not even that really old lady with the cane and the fake teeth and the tubes we saw at the hospital when we went to visit grandma?”

Mark burst out laughing.

“Grace, don’t interrupt me again.”

“OK, daddy.”

“According to the Mayans though…” Mark said.

“Mark. Stop it. If you want to read about the 2012 apocalypse check out Wikipedia, but keep your mouth shut.”

No one spoke. Not a bad sign, but weird. Benny finally tackled the serious issue at hand. Christmas. “As you both know in a few days we will be celebrating Christmas.”

Grace grinned. Benny preempted her with a serious stare. “So,” he said. “All of your grandparents will be visiting us this year and I really need you to act your best.”

“What do you mean, daddy?”

“Your mommy is feeling very stressed with her work and…other stuff, and I—we all need to help her with everything, just this one week. OK?”

“OK, daddy. Will you help her cook?”

“Um, no.”

“Don’t worry, daddy. I will.”

This was a bad idea. He shouldn’t have said anything. “OK…Mark?”

“Fine.”

What? No argument? What was going on? Should he be afraid? Benny wasn’t afraid, just worried. Maybe the world wasn’t going to end, but with the way things were going he wasn’t all that excited to wish anyone “Happy New Year” come 2012. What was worse was that he was the one he had to take the kids shopping today. Kids, toy store, Christmas and small budget didn’t bode well. In fact, it sounded more like one of those IQ test questions. Which one of these words doesn’t fit in?

Benny, Mark, Grace and Annie wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Discussion Topic: Branding

BRANDING

by Georgevine Moss


Harvey Weinstein has been in the press these past few days, mostly in relation to the Weinstein Company produced “My Week with Marilyn” movie, which opened this year’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

An Associated Press article written by John Carucci and featured on Yahoo! recounts the desire of Mr. Weinstein to turn his film company into a brand.

Brand examples mentioned in the article, mostly for their widely recognized logos, include facebook, twitter, Apple, and MGM. More specifically, there’s talk about facebook’s F, twitters’ T, Apple’s chipped apple and MGM’s lion.

Facebook doesn’t really have a logo though, does it? Facebook doesn’t, and twitter’s logo is the cartoon-looking flying bird which appears right after the social network’s name, not the little square light-blue icon with the letter T in it. That small square along with the dark-blue icon with the letter F in it are buttons used in almost every webpage and every blog as a simple way for people to promote content on these social networks.

This use of the icons is what made them so familiar to a wider audience. Whether you use those networks or not doesn’t matter, because if you use the internet then those two icons can’t be avoided. In that regard, twitter’s logo, or facebook’s lack of one, doesn’t seem to be that important.

On the other hand, Apple and MGM have strong logos, but are they important, and how do they work for their respective companies?

Very effectively for Apple, one could say. Every product is stamped with that chipped apple and that logo instantly renders it recognizable as an Apple product. That single image passes a variety of messages to the consumer, mainly the key attributes Apple wants to represent, sleek design and ease of use. Also high price, but, thanks to the power of the brand, that otherwise undesirable characteristic ends up being another part of the advertised package. So overall, the logo seems to play an important part for the brand.

How about MGM? How does the lion, which becomes even more memorable on film where it changes from a static image to a moving one, help the brand? Aesthetically it is a very powerful logo. It is also a highly recognizable one on its own. But is the MGM name associated with it and thus equally known and what does it represent to the consumer?

Does it pass on a specific message to the mind of the consumer other than that “this is a movie you are about to watch”? And does the casual non-OCD viewer pay any attention to anything else but the lion? Does it even matter?

Overall, one could argue that for a film studio a well-recognized logo with the effectiveness of Apple’s, wouldn’t deliver the same value for two reasons. First, most movies nowadays are made by a combination of partnerships with a bunch of other studios and second, most studios make a variety of different kind of films. Both these elements dilute the message a brand could deliver.

When it comes to branding, movies are tricky products. Genre trumps a studio’s name, star-powered names trump genre and oftentimes actors’ names substitute genre, e.g. an Adam Sandler film, instead of a comedy.

Then there are the directors’ names. Those mainly sell a specific style. A Quentin Tarantino film, a Coen Brothers film, those names, when consumers hear them, they get an idea of the style of the movie and not necessarily its genre, and that’s exactly what those names sell, the unique style attached to the specific name.

A studio like the Weinstein Company would probably be able to create a brand, which would sell a specific kind of movie style (editing, production) and not genre or the vague characterization of a “serious” film as mentioned in the Associated Press article. For instance, “The Iron Lady” could be called a “serious” film but one may not necessarily consider “My Week with Marilyn” a movie of the same level of “seriousness”.

The Weinstein name, though known, doesn’t seem to be widely associated with the movies it produces or distributes. With their films it’s very likely that consumers who watch the trailers or the posters choose to watch the movie based on whether they’re intrigued by the subject of the movie or not. The trailers though, to some extent, do show the style of a Weinstein Company film, so both the logo and the name of the company should stand out in the trailers and the posters in order to not only become recognizable, but to be associated with those films as well, until the brand is able to deliver its message (namely the style of the movie) on its own.

Perhaps that can be achieved with a small change to the existing logo, like this?





For more on branding here’s a recent article on branding myths which appeared on CBS Money Watch. Finally, you are most likely to find at least one thing about branding, which is both useful and informative, by reading these MIT Marketing lecture notes.