Reading Recommendation

[lapsedagnostic]

I'm a navy brat, and I've always felt that was one of the largest elements that determined who I am. A few years ago a friend gave me this book, which is mostly interviews and case studies of eighty brats, with some interpretation and conclusions thrown in. It sucked, in that "stop fucking with my denial and coping mechanism" kinda way. It was very powerful for me, personally. It took me months, if not years, to get through the first chapter. I don't remember. It sat in my night stand, always waiting for me to pick it up and try to read chapter one again.

I finally got through it, and highlighted the most telling passages for my wife to read. It was very intense to learn where so many of my non-standard behavior mechanisms come from. If you're a brat, or you're involved with one, I'd advise reading this. It's not a feel good book by any sense, but it's pretty good at explaining the cause and effects.

Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress

Comments

[bittibuddha.livejournal.com]

really?? Really? your personality was "set" by the time you were 13?

whoa. I would have thought it would have been a few more years.

[lapsedagnostic.livejournal.com]

I think we need to make sure that we're using the same defination of "personality".

By that age, though, I was introverted, good at making acquaintenances, bad at making friends, had already formed the basis for my "type" of females, had set my sense of humor, my laziness and my cleverness that i sued to counter act it, with issues with authority, my trouble with finishing projects, my social anxiety.

I think all these elements were there by the time I turned 13. Were they completely set? No. But definately there in some form or another.

Hell, I don't consider myself to actually have become sentient until my late twenties, until then I pretty much purely reacted to my environment.

[bittibuddha.livejournal.com]

Hell, I don't consider myself to actually have become sentient until my late twenties, until then I pretty much purely reacted to my environment.

~ding~

THAT was what I was looking for, actually... hell: if I thought for a moment that my entire life was based on my 13 year old paradigm, I would have run screaming off a bridge by now.

mkay. Im content. please carry on.