Re: CHAT: Unsolicited abuse

Matt Pearson wrote:

> I should clarify that the psychologist in question was not my
> therapist, nor was he acting in a professional capacity at the time
> of our conversation.  But he was something of an authority figure -
> viz., the father of the family I stayed with when I was an exchange
> student in Sweden, about 11 years ago.  The conversation in question
> occurred very shortly after I arrived, and it was rather traumatic.
> I was fresh out of high school and away from home for the first
> time, not to mention in the throes of culture shock, and to be
> accused of mental masturbation and pathologically antisocial behaviour
> by someone I barely knew was rather hard to take.
Ah... you've mentioned this incident before.  Do you think there is any
possibility that he misunderstood what you said?  Do you think he thought
you meant you liked to make up words for fun rather than a systematic,
rule-governed *language*?  Most people, I would think, have so little
understanding of what conlanging is that they might assume you just play around
with words or something like that, not knowing about the intracacies that
grammars can have (much as most people think linguists just know lots of
languages).

Of course, I sympathize with your experience.  Whatever he thought, it
wasn't his place to tell you what he did, like he did, and of all things when
he did.   Just because you're a psychologist doesn't mean you have good
people-skills. ;-)

=======================================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and
oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil
spirits at the dawn of day. - Thomas Jefferson
========================================================