22 January 2009

Phineas who?


Phineas Gage. A name I have not heard of in a couple of years. All the psychology bumheads out there know exactly who this is.

Are accidents really just accidents, or can they serve some sort of life-altering purpose?

Mr. Gage had a freak accident at work, where a steel bar fell and went right through his frontal lobe [the front part of your brain]. Mr. Gage survived, but the tremendous personality change he experienced due to this accident led to studying the different parts of the brain and what exactly they affect. Through Phineas Gage's accident, it was discovered that the frontal lobe affects personality, aggression, empathy, basic social skills. Phineas went from being a loving family man to a raging aggressive man.

Terrible accident that added to the history of psychology.

Ok, so whats the point? I heard this name again today from a friend that is taking an intro psych class at FSU and it brought back such immense feelings, like hearing from a past love that you still kinda love but will never admit.

I love what I do, no doubt. I feel such satisfaction to see the women I serve re-collect themselves again after leaving their asshole husbands/boyfriends, [or to put it a bit more politically correct- I'm a domestic violence counselor].

However, I know I could not be such an amazing counselor without my background in psych. Sometimes I wish I would have continued with psych, but I know I was turned off to the entire field by a negative man in my life-- my accient.

Going back to where it all started... are accidents really "just accidents".

This time last year I got a job offer in Herefordshire, UK to be a social worker. Sounds amazing right??

One year later, I'm STILL in the US. It's like dangling that pipe in front of a crack heads face. Boy, did I go to mass one Sunday PISSED OFF. After 8 months of going through the disorganization of PULSE STAFFING AGENCY [yea I said it !!! ] I vented and bitched at God and finally accepted the fact that another year of my life would be in Tallahassee.

Just an accident? Really?

.... I got another job offer in the UK, but this time in London!! Everything in me is sayin Yes Yes Yes, this time, it will happen. But I'm keeping my mouth shut, not really telling many people about it [ironic that I'm blogging, but really, how many people will read this? Probably those that are close enough to me that already know I got the job].

So, my man Phinny.. he will never know what he gave to the world of psychology. He will always think he was shitted on by life to have a steel rod pierce his face and caused him to lose his family.

There are no accidents.

2 comments:

  1. Even waking up ten minutes late in London is no accident.

    Julian

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  2. very true. had u woken up on time, we would have been blown up by the bombs. my hero :)

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