Toy Words
It is a coffee morning (Peruvian) and I was thinking about writing something mesmerizing, when my mind began to wander. As it did so, the thoughts progressed and here is the fruit of all that
I have been reading some miscellaneous blogs, interviews, books, what-have-you, and certain words began to resonate with me. There is nothing special about these words; in fact they are rather every day. The two specific words are dissociative and abreaction. And I thought, those two words sound very scholarly, don’t they? I am sure there is a ton of other vocabulary we all bandy about in our pursuits (blogosphere, postings, bounces - you get the point, yes?). Actually, I can hear my father using a word like ostentatious about now.
But these words, in some odd way, they sort of become toys for us to play with, to pleasure in, and whip out in a conversation. Then I started thinking about some of my friends, specifically my ghost hunting friends and my art friends. They do have their vocabulary, but they have their love of specific toys. The ghosting crew has big, bad, ol’ EMF meters, temperature gauges, digital voice recorders, thermal imaging cameras, and various still cameras. My art friends, they have their brushes, canvasses, software, computer screens and digital cameras.
And here’s where I digressed further. While some have tangible toys, many of us do not. Does our vocabulary become our toys? Sure there are some hypnotist who have biofeedback machines, pendulums, heart beat simulators, head sets, and such, but it is not so required. We can move about freely and do what we do without anything else. And in the end, when other’s talk of toys, we can smile to ourselves (often smugly) and think how all the other people are so dissociative. LOL.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Do we have toys? Oh, yes. ;^)
Some of my favorite toys are pet phrases, things that I use frequently in play hypnosis (ie, not therapy but just trancing with friends for fun) and, as a result, tend to get a mild reaction from those friends when I say them just in casual conversation.
“That’s right…”
“It’s perfectly okay …”
“Very good!”
Sometimes I drop into my hypnotic voice, say one of those phrases, and watch a goofy smile come across the face of a housemate or friend who’s familiar with them as they realize how conditioned they’ve become.
<MR>
April 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I eschew toys in my office, relying unilaterally on linguistics!
April 24th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Cool blog! I love the topic of conversation!
April 25th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Very good, Michael. LOL Debbie! and thanks hypnosis.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Toy Words, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I have a friend who is constantly using words as toys. He loves to say “literally”, “no, no it’s true”, and “honestly”. Another friend loves “the whole nine yards” and “To tell you the truth..” I think the words we use say a great deal about who we are. Thanks for the great blog!