CUNY Academic Commons | Jennifer MacDonald | Activity https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/members/jmacdonald/activity/ Activity feed for Jennifer MacDonald. Sat, 01 Jan 2050 18:00:18 -0500 https://buddypress.org/?v= en 30 hourly 2 af238bbdaa7dd34a436f814e2a1b085e Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=762 Thu, 14 May 2015 02:38:24 -0400 Out of the choices for MALS intro classes, I was most struck by the write-up for this class, asking about self and consciousness, because I’d never really thought about it so specifically before. The materials in […]

]]> d0a2b619a6c44d14667c99e80546bbf1 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, An Anthology in Need of a Title, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/05/12/an-anthology-in-need-of-a-title/#comment-213 Thu, 14 May 2015 02:13:51 -0400 Title:
OurSelves
Private and Public Personas
Persona, Inside and Out

Subtitle:
An Anthology of Inventing, Representing, and Expressing the Self
Explorations in Inventing, Representing, and Expressing […]

]]> 2a93c9b45b030d1dad13dbaa5d38b4a1 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Siri Hudsvedt Brickman/Burden, Maskings & Sincerity, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/26/siri-hudsvedt-brickmanburden-maskings-sincerity/#comment-209 Mon, 27 Apr 2015 21:24:17 -0400 Thanks, Liz–great context and related ideas/thoughts you’ve brought in, here, from the author’s “real” life!

]]> 4e4e10b89f6118e7f8d1a1cafe6685e0 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, The Blazing World, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/27/the-blazing-world/#comment-208 Mon, 27 Apr 2015 21:22:28 -0400 Great post, Julia–your description of the (immediate and continual) feelings while reading this novel, of real/unreal with the Editor’s Note, footnotes, etc., resonates with me.

]]> bf0a5811090258ad1c9dd0137e47b464 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." --Wilde, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/26/man-is-least-himself-when-he-talks-in-his-own-person-give-him-a-mask-and-he-will-tell-you-the-truth-wilde/#comment-207 Mon, 27 Apr 2015 21:15:30 -0400 Yes, I think the end quote, when Harry says, “I am Odysseus, but I have been Penelope,” really speaks to this idea of her hiding behind a mask, and her disappointment in herself for not facing at least some more […]

]]> 66b71770fa6d143a29d560afcab7c24d Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=682 Sun, 26 Apr 2015 18:24:28 -0400 Hustvedt’s novel centers on the theme of masks, self-awareness, and self-deception, among others. Overall, Harry is offered as an ever-changing multiple, but she is also still somehow singular and knowable. In her […]

]]> f3e892882882c8c9a06b28508ac2fe5d Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Controversial Medical/Mental Health, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/19/controversial-medicalmental-health/#comment-199 Tue, 21 Apr 2015 21:46:28 -0400 I found the statistic in Lurhmann’s article so powerful: “The WHO estimates that one in four people will have an episode of mental illness in their lifetime.” Given this statistic, it’s amazing how mental health […]

]]> 6e0a8874ddba78f420738d8130b37421 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, the rewards and short comings of talk therapy, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/19/the-rewards-and-short-comings-of-talk-therapy/#comment-198 Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:50:04 -0400 I agree the idea of a middle ground is important between medication use and taking advantage of therapy (talk, behavioral, etc.), and that these pieces we’ve read and watched this week give a strong voice to the […]

]]> 3cf3700559f3a9af9c94bff3993c8787 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Post One-Sentence Descriptions of Your Research Projects Here, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/04/11/post-one-sentence-descriptions-of-your-research-projects-here/#comment-188 Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:22:18 -0400 I’ll be writing about how environment changes the self, particularly through travel (adventure and adversity), to try and answer questions like: how/why does change in environment change the self, particularly in […]

]]> db274ca846d066cc5b13e07f3ecfa927 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, There Was This Goat., on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/30/there-was-this-goat-3/#comment-163 Tue, 31 Mar 2015 04:14:15 -0400 I think your post, David, will be interesting in the context of Berni’s questions regarding reconciliation (individual, group, and national, and how these interact with personal, community, and global […]

]]> dfcc6fcd819962438a95c0fd6073695a Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, There was this Goat: to Understand and Live with Mrs. Konile, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/30/there-was-this-goat-to-understand-and-live-with-mrs-konile/#comment-162 Tue, 31 Mar 2015 03:14:45 -0400 Telling of experience through words… this narrativizing we do to communicate with one another… is in essence what your last quote exemplifies, I think. When reading Mrs. Konile’s “official” testimony, I was […]

]]> f2924246a1a8164d78afb68cb5b2c1cf Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Prompt #2 The Self and Fictional Characters, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/23/prompt-2-the-self-and-fictional-characters/#comment-152 Thu, 26 Mar 2015 04:23:30 -0400 A few anthropology/psychology things, too, might be useful, regarding storytelling, myths, and symbols: Carl Jung; Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth, The Hero With a Thousand Faces); and poetry (Yeats, comes to […]

]]> 0202f785b92e21231750fad811de08b9 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Propmt#2, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/23/propmt2/#comment-151 Thu, 26 Mar 2015 04:10:01 -0400 Your project sounds really interesting, Dag. As a side note–or related, but not really!–this made me think of one sentence in particular from Viegener’s book that really hit a chord: “I have found that you are […]

]]> 1f2431c24f11c8f2d827e5dfa85e5a55 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, 3 prompts in 1 post, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/23/3-prompts-in-1-post/#comment-150 Thu, 26 Mar 2015 03:50:09 -0400 Thanks for the encouragement, both of you! I’ve always been interested in travel/adventure narratives and documentary, in particular, because I’m not an easy traveler (so it’s vicarious, I guess). I find myself […]

]]> 352c4286f8c288369014a1b159905165 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Inseparability, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/24/inseparability/#comment-149 Thu, 26 Mar 2015 02:44:31 -0400 Lieberman picking this fight made me wonder if someone couldn’t find a better way to illustrate the ideas that he and Maslow both have, together, in some kind of new shape: an improved structure that encompasses […]

]]> 1fc2f35a75584f3c844390970060217b Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Prompt 3, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/24/prompt-3-3/#comment-148 Thu, 26 Mar 2015 02:14:53 -0400 I’m thinking through some topics for my project regarding the influence of environment on the development of the self, so I think there could be a few pieces of overlap between us in, at least, for example, […]

]]> 8d8d683b7152e0ee1ef4b961b8e849ad Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Prompt #1: Lieberman analyzed and illustrated à la Gaipa, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/24/prompt-1-lieberman-analyzed-and-illustrated-a-la-gaipa/#comment-135 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 21:18:44 -0400 This is great, Liz. Naomi’s thought bubble is spot-on! I also love the tombstones and their disembodied thought trails.

]]> 44a1b47922133244832c067180212f06 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Lieberman discussion questions, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/22/lieberman-discussion-questions/#comment-134 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 18:40:31 -0400 The 3-5 times I’ve “caught” my mind after accomplishing a task, then thinking, the space has so far been inhabited with a socially inclined thought (remembering to thank someone for something they’d done, […]

]]> 9d8ed89f388765105fb407e010dbd31d Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=489 Tue, 24 Mar 2015 04:49:11 -0400 Prompt #1: LIEBERMAN AND DAMASIO (mirror neurons, mentalizing, as-if body loop, empathy, body-minded brain, self)

Lieberman/Social: pp. 149-150: “Being able to see a series of body movements as a coherent […]

]]> c11736e65d820b942d64221bcef790e8 Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=442 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 02:03:53 -0400 For discussion:

1. As readers, how do we approach and digest the information we are consuming? What enables us to trust and/or distrust the writer and the material they are presenting?
  a) On page 19, […]

]]> 85284e5b389e0137f16569a64dfdcfcc Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, How to lose friends and alienate powerful CUNY faculty, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/15/how-to-lose-friends-and-alienate-powerful-cuny-faculty/#comment-96 Tue, 17 Mar 2015 05:38:57 -0400 I like your point juxtaposing the accessibility of Viegener’s lists with Koestenbaum’s overly intellectual/emo review. I surely found myself looking up words and references throughout reading the review, just to […]

]]> 86776a74c9271e7b3e51ec5adb633cc5 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Blog Post - Matias, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/16/blog-post-matias/#comment-95 Tue, 17 Mar 2015 04:23:11 -0400 I was both put off by and pulled into Viegener’s book, sometimes having each reaction every few minutes. Overall, I think I found it too personal, actually. I’m not sure there was enough self-monitoring, for me. […]

]]> 5cc2d0ff070d1875caea5949962aac4d Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=413 Tue, 17 Mar 2015 04:00:41 -0400 I enjoyed this exercise… I liked the lines from Viegener most when he was telling me something he’d learned from visiting places and hanging out with people, like hearing it from a friend in conversation. That […]

]]> a14880b4da37725283b3c826430ba3eb Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Maud Casey, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/02/maud-casey/#comment-79 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 20:32:47 -0500 Enjoyed skimming these as supplement to our readings and talk on Tuesday…
This quote from the Casey interview struck me as important, re: our discussion of reading the novel:
“I think fiction is an act of […]

]]> 5becf868858853cba081c46087ec6e67 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Mental health and homeostasis, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/01/mental-health-and-homeostasis/#comment-75 Tue, 03 Mar 2015 05:01:59 -0500 Yeah, just when you thought we were done with Damasio, he’s back 🙂

I thought the travel background in Hacking was so interesting! Thinking about how motility (bikes, railroads, and transferring from one place […]

]]> a9990da2de17791c6fd76fe949ae82e0 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Autobiographical Self in its State of Balance, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/02/autobiographical-self-in-its-state-of-balance/#comment-74 Tue, 03 Mar 2015 03:56:58 -0500 I’ve also read about disorders like frontal or temporal lobe seizures (non-convulsive) along with various levels and types of schizophrenia that involve acute postictal confusion, wandering, and psychogenic […]

]]> f1ca699257f1ddb18d00f476a1a45c47 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Present, past and future selves, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/03/02/present-past-and-future-selves/#comment-73 Tue, 03 Mar 2015 03:40:20 -0500 I read the Hacking first, and it was good to see how Casey took certain points and embellished them, while not emphasizing others. I thought of the repetition as a device to create a constancy…almost a lyrical […]

]]> 4523baab55bd0e40e6eaaff4073533a8 Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=334 Mon, 02 Mar 2015 04:20:00 -0500 My parents are both psychiatric nurses who worked their entire careers in state-run mental health facilities. In Casey, there is a line from the Director (on p. 151): “There is pleasure in a schedule…. It calms […]

]]> efe0bde9cfc7ee60d424fab8b7f286b6 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, In The Times, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/22/in-the-times/#comment-55 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:48:39 -0500 As we discussed in class, Damasio’s definitions are important to his framework. and maybe Block isn’t relying on them as much as he could (in his review) as insights to Damasio’s points about things on the border […]

]]> 4073a75a92b2bb39a67227989e01268c Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Two peripheral (?) observations, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/22/two-peripheral-observations/#comment-47 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 06:41:54 -0500 I think Liz brings up a great point about attribution and it made me think about the creative process in terms of writing regarding a writer’s thoughts and how they write fictional characters […]

]]> 42ab72479420a5c1347295b69c9cd8b2 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Out of our heads, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/22/out-of-our-heads/#comment-46 Tue, 24 Feb 2015 06:05:18 -0500 I’m interested in this idea Dag mentions from Noe’s chapter 6 about the brain filling in gaps from the senses… as linked to some of Noe’s examples of memories and present experience and visions like:
–as he […]

]]> 04cf30f36da7b733cbbd0de3fadb6391 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Michael Gazzaniga on the Radio, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/17/michael-gazzaniga-on-the-radio/#comment-44 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 19:34:55 -0500 It was interesting to hear Gazzaniga say that the right and left brain are so interconnected that it’s false to say as restrictively as we do in usual speech that someone is using their left brain (like someone […]

]]> baa233d6766e345aebd7c0510f1bdc9c Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=266 Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:41:51 -0500 Don’t mean to be a total downer, but Oliver Sacks wrote an op-ed today on learning he has terminal cancer. In a short space, he mentions Hume, doing/seeing in the present, and detaching from future experience.

<span style="color: […]

]]> e8e880c33ebe74f30b84fa9fe7913284 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Pondering, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/15/pondering/#comment-41 Wed, 18 Feb 2015 21:56:48 -0500 Justin – Your last few sentences about machines, survival, free will, and consciousness are pretty thought provoking. Thanks for making those points here.

]]> 4f1bf542a4fa0c760b08b47a0f43377b Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, , on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/17/251/#comment-40 Wed, 18 Feb 2015 21:37:17 -0500 I enjoyed the links you provided, Ayanna — thanks. Especially the “Time on the Brain” link which refers to a number of things we spoke about in class on Tuesday evening… the work that Eagleman is doing seems […]

]]> 8d95ac90ea47988b2aa2fa549b715ab1 Jennifer MacDonald wrote a new post on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?p=216 Mon, 16 Feb 2015 02:23:13 -0500 In “Stepping Into the Light,” Damasio says “At its simplest… consciousness lets us recognize an irresistible urge to stay alive and develop a concern for the self. At its most complex… consciousness helps us […]

]]> bc80795e622dce387e0b0835114a6813 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, The Story of a Shaking Woman, on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self http://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/07/the-story-of-a-shaking-woman/#comment-9 Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:03:27 -0500 I like this idea of the “crack” that Dag mentions; one that changes everything… Hustvedt offers us a mystery to be solved. The mystery lies somewhere among the back and forth flow of all systems, simultaneously […]

]]> 9f67fd73c206e6c9f96c29633d8a9370 Jennifer MacDonald commented on the post, Paul John Eakin, “Autobiographical Consciousness” (Chapter 2), on the site MALS 7000: Inventing the Self https://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2015/02/08/paul-john-eakin-autobiographical-consciousness-chapter-2/#comment-8 Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:00:47 -0500 A few random thoughts re: your reading response, speaking toward “narrative identity systems”:

Hustvedt mentioned in the start of her book how her father had discussed points with her from his deathbed in the […]

]]> e08c0c89389e2e2ca18a3d0e34b94a96 Jennifer MacDonald became a registered member https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/activity/p/324165/ Sun, 01 Feb 2015 20:42:17 -0500