“As we have come to understand the psychology of evil, we have realized that such transformations of human character are not as rare as we would like to believe. Historical inquiry and behavioral science have demonstrated the "banality of evil" -- that is, under certain conditions and social pressures, ordinary people can commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable.” PeopleBelieveHumansCharacterCertainEvilSocialPsychologyConditionsOrdinaryTransformationPressureHistoricalCommitInquiryOrdinary PeopleUnthinkableBanalitySocial Pressure Author:Philip Zimbardo
“The Soviet government sprouted and grew out of the habits, the psychology, and the condition of the Russian people. It fitted them. They understand it.” PeopleGovernmentPsychologyConditionsGrewHabitSoviet Book:The World of Lincoln Steffens Source: The World of Lincoln Steffens
“In an extensive reading of recent books by psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and inspirationalists, I have discovered that they all suffer from one or more of these expression-complexes: italicizing, capitalizing, exclamation-pointing, multiple-interrogating, and itemizing. These are all forms of what the psychos themselves would call, if they faced their condition frankly, Rhetorical-Over-Compensation.” IfsBookFormSufferingReadingPsychologyConditionsExpressionComplexesMultiplePointingCompensationPsychiatristPsychologistPsychoRhetoricalExclamationExtensive Reading Author:James Thurber
“My war - and I have yet to win a decisive battle - is with the modes of thought that and conditioned feelings that prevail in psychology and therefore also in the way we think and feel about our being. Of these conditions none are more tyrannical than the convictions that clamp the mind and heart into positivistic science (geneticism and computerism), economics (bottom-line capitalism), and single-minded faith (fundamentalism).” ThinkingWayFeelsMindHeartWarFeelingsWinningLinesPsychologyConditionsBattleCapitalismEconomicsBottomConvictionFundamentalismHeart And MindBottom Line Author:James Hillman
“What I "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.” PeoplePersonsDoeFactsHappensAbleHappinessChanceResultsQualityPsychologyConditionsEventsDependsDiscoveryExperienceFortunePreparedDetermineHappyCommandInterpretationHappy LifeBe PreparedBeing HappyGood FortuneCultivatingInterpretingRandom Chance Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
“In the dog two conditions were found to produce pathological disturbances by functional interference, namely, an unusually acute clashing of the excitatory and inhibitory processes, and the influence of strong and extraordinary stimuli. In man precisely similar conditions constitute the usual causes of nervous and psychic disturbances. Different conditions productive of extreme excitation, such as intense grief or bitter insults, often lead, when the natural reactions are inhibited by the necessary restraint, to profound and prolonged loss of balance in nervous and psychic activity.” MenTwoDifferentScienceFoundStrongCausesProcessNaturalLossGriefPsychologyInfluenceConditionsDogProduceBalanceActivityProfoundExtraordinaryExtremesExperimentsReactionsIntenseBitterNervousInsultProductiveUsualRestraintPsychicsStimulusInterferenceDisturbance Author:Ivan Pavlov
“To regard such a positive mental science [psychology] as rising above the sphere of history, and establishing the permanent and unchanging laws of human nature, is therefore possible only to a person who mistakes the transient conditions of a certain historical age for the permanent conditions of human life.” HumansPersonsAgeLawCertainMistakePsychologyConditionsHuman NatureRegardHistoricalPermanentHuman LifeRisingSpheresRise AboveTransientUnchanging Author:Robin G. Collingwood
“... Tal accepted absolutely all the world champion's conditions with a smile, taking away a very important psychological trump card from him - the harsh, prickly relations with his opponent that were characteristic of all Botvinnik's matches.” WorldImportantPsychologyConditionsTrumpRelationAcceptedPsychologicalCardsChampionOpponentsCharacteristicsHarshWorld Champions Author:Gennadi Sosonko
“If you look at our theories of social pathology and then at the dismal conditions in which children grow up in our ghettos, you would predict that all of them would be on drugs or psychological basket cases. Yet if you use criteria like gainful employment, forming partnerships and life without crime, you will find that most of those kids make it.” IfsLooksChildrenUseWould BeKidsSocialGrowsCasesGrowing UpPsychologyConditionsCrimeTheoryDrugPsychologicalEmploymentPartnershipCriteriaGhettoBasketsPathology Author:Albert Bandura
“Both the Freudian and the Platonic metaphors emphasize the considerable independence of and tension among the constituent parts of the psyche, a point that characterizes the human condition.” HumansPsychologyConditionsIndependenceMetaphorTensionHuman ConditionConstituentsPlatonic Book:Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence Source: Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
“Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.” KnowsMindPhilosophyBodyRealityPsychologyConditionsProduceBuildingMedicineSensesUncertaintySquaresUncertainCompassCalculationsAlteredAccommodateUntrueDefectiveSoma Author:Michel de Montaigne