Random thoughts on CBT and Cemetaries (Awndrea Caves)

I really enjoyed Claude Fischer’s chapter on “Mentality,” from his book, Made in America.  Fischer mentions, but does not get very deeply into the idea of the “modern” mind.  Are we really so different in how we perceive the world than people of “pre-Modernity”?  I felt that Fischer did a thorough and thoroughly entertaining job of showing how environment shapes reactions to the world and perceptions of self.  One area he did not discuss, but that I would like to add to the list of character and self-improvement strategies:  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  This has roots in psychiatry, but many self-help books are suggesting some form of CBT.  

My favorite quote in this piece is:  “The persistence of Abrahamic faith for most Americans and some sort of New Age spiritualism for others challenges the assumption that modern life made people “rational” in the sense that science is rational” (209).  This, of course, goes to Fischer’s questions about the “modern” mind.  I admit, I have questions on that too. J   I also liked:  “Rather than becoming smarter or more rational, Americans gained new tools with which to make better informed, more systematic decisions” (210).

I was impressed with how Fischer weaves lines of social and political upheaval and change through with the development of the self of individual responsibility and control.  After reading about the changes in cemeteries, more toward parks than gloomy spaces, I feel less strange in my appreciation of our lovely Tucson cemeteries on sunny days.