Human Nature

Concerning The Baltimore Sun article "Cat parasite reaches human brain: Possibility of link to schizophrenia explored" (Aug. 1): Outrageous. 1. Schizophrenia has long been understood by psychodynamic psychologists (Theodore Lidz, among others) as caused by a certain pattern of faulty emotional attachment by parents and parent-figures from early on in a child's life, causing distorted emotional development. 2. People have been cured of it--see the web site of the National Empowerment Center.

The expectation is that some time Saturday it'll become official that Opening Day starter Jake Arrieta has been sent to Triple-A Norfolk. The numbers show why. He is 2-8 with a 6.32 ERA. He leads the majors in losses. He's dropped his last six decisions in a span of seven starts. He is 1-5 with a 7.85 ERA in seven home starts. He allowed career highs in hits (11) and runs (9) in Friday's 9-6 loss, and he pitched just four innings. After the game, Arrieta admitted to reporters that he is lost, and is more frustrated than he has ever been.

THE GUY WAS selling ice for $15 a bag. We're talking plain old frozen water here, not diamonds. Although, in August of '92, just after Hurricane Andrew ripped across greater Miami, there wasn't a whole lot of difference. In those days when the power was off, the roof was gone and the heat was sweltering, a man with ice could name his own price. So I am distressed, but not particularly surprised, to hear that days after Hurricane Charley hammered Florida's Gulf Coast to ruin the tattered region is confronting a plague of a different sort.

''There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my lif than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery -- then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.'' -- Jesse JacksonWashington.--This was the year that America looked in the mirror and blanched. This year the political system moved gingerly toward confronting the question of how public policy can nurture, or injure, character. The ''person of the year,'' emblematic of the dominating public concern, might be a young black male dressed in the regalia of the gang and rap music cultures.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Sixteen years ago, I tried to answer a perennial question about American politics: Does the United States look more like the country predicted by Thomas Jefferson or by his rival, Alexander Hamilton? Jefferson asserted that ordinary people with sufficient education and virtue can govern themselves wisely, that liberty is the natural desire of all mankind, and that the world's monarchs and dictators would ultimately be overthrown. Hamilton, on the other hand, claimed Jefferson's view was folly, based on wishful thinking, because human nature itself precludes the kind of wisdom necessary for self-government.

WASHINGTON -- This indicates just how out of joint the times are: Human nature is startling news.Asserting that there is a human nature has become a radical political act, which today's feminists stigmatize as reactionary. This troubles Danielle Crittenden not at all.A 35-year-old writer and mother of two, her new book, "What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman," is written with the verve and wit she brings to editing the Women's Quarterly of the Independent Women's Forum.

AFTER SERVING in the Air Force and in public service for nearly five decades, I have learned a few things about how people in politics use what is best in human nature to promote a sense of unity and purpose among their constituents and their countrymen. Unfortunately, I also have seen how people in politics use the worst elements of human nature not to better their country -- or even themselves -- but to hurt, or even destroy, others. We are seeing far too much of this in American politics these days, and this may be worth noting as the candidates for president embark tonight on the first of their three debates.

Human nature: If you like something, you don't want to hea what's wrong with it. If it feels good, you want to do it, not question it.Sell us fresh fruit, but don't tell us about the slave-wage migrant workers who picked it.Hey, baby, there's nothing like the feel of a fur coat; just don't show us how it's made.Jesse Jackson's complaint with Major League Baseball might be legitimate, but spare us the social argument -- especially when we're on the way to the ballpark.The circus is in town.

The following column appeared originally in September, 1989.Q: When my mother passed away, my sister-in-law was gracious enough to assist me in sending acknowledgments. We took turns reading addresses, and my turn for writing the envelopes was first. When we decided to switch, my sister-in-law said: "Why are you giving me their names? They didn't send flowers or a memorial contribution." I said that it didn't matter; they were good enough to come to the funeral home. She said that didn't make any difference -- they weren't entitled to an acknowledgment.

In a provocative interview in the current New Yorker, NBC Sports researcher Nicholas Schiavone reveals that the old "nature vs. nurture" argument is what fuels the network's Olympics coverage.In more than 10,000 interviews over six years that helped NBC mold the kind of coverage people want, the network found that while what Schiavone considers the three elements of human nature -- "think, feel, do" -- apply to both sexes, men and women use them in different ways."I think it's partly the genetic code, but I think that society also encourages the two different perspectives, because they are complementary -- the emotional dimension and the rational dimension," said Schiavone.