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Human Nature and the Meaning of Life: Final Exam For this writing, your Final, use no outside sources and no AI: use only the information presented here, and your critical reasoning skills. Write a clear and thorough response to all five prompts below: (A) – (E). Number or letter each of your responses (you do not need to recopy the prompt or question). Part I: Human Nature Psychology, Mental Health, and Entertainment Dominic Strinati (1948): The American Dream is the belief that material wealth and success can be achieved by anyone who has the necessary initiative, ambition, ingenuity, perseverance, and commitment. The dream is money, power, fame, and happiness. The road from rags to riches is open to anyone willing to take it. The only barrier to its attainment lies within people themselves. Such is the American Dream. Talk and TV shows are of interest to the mental health profession. Through various shows, millions of people have obtained their understanding not only of mental health problems and their symptoms but also of “professional” intervention and treatment. About 70% of all such TV shows include guests identified as “experts.” On many of the shows, the standard procedure is to spend a considerable portion of the allotted time elaborating and demonstrating the guests’ problems, and then, in the final moments of the show, to involve the “expert” whose job it is to offer solutions and neatly sum up the show. There are myriad difficulties arising from this formula. The shows’ format and goals prevent real treatment of any kind. But because of their enormous popularity, and the repeated display of mental health issues, the shows have become the leading source of mental health information for the general public. The public is told that the problems they are witnessing are both common and underrecognized. The public is urged to seek help, and then self-help books, websites, and/or seminars are offered for purchase. Help is promised for drug use, codependency, eating disorders, gambling, compulsive shopping, infidelity, money management problems, and even child abuse. Many phrases occur repeatedly across all such shows: “inner child,” “dysfunctional families,” “working your program,” and “recovering abuser.” The books pushed on the shows have reached best seller status and many have sold over 2 million copies including Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, Bradshaw on the Family, Healing the Shame that Binds You, and Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, and others. Millions of viewers watch Oprah’s “lifestyle expert” Dr. Phil McGraw. Oprah openly delights in the “no-nonsense” one-liners Dr. Phil fires at deserving guests. Dr. McGraw, who holds a PhD in psychology (emphasis in neuropsychology) has a substantial background in civil court consultation, having cofounded Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a legal consulting business. He met Oprah Winfrey when he served as a consultant to her much-publicized “Mad Cow” trial. His brand of self-help claims to stress responsibility and seeks to minimize ambiguity in personal matters by applying the clear-cut certitude that derives from law. The black-and-white approach is the hallmark of his first book, Life Strategies, Doing What Works, Doing What Matters. The recommended strategies are based on his “laws of life”: the text sold more than 500,000 copies in its first three months. Oprah says her goal is to “enlighten, educate, and entertain” her viewers. Promising that TV can “change people’s lives,” Oprah introduced “Change Your Life TV.” Dr. Phil’s second book was Relationship Rescue, also a best seller and regularly promoted on Oprah’s show. On Oprah’s webpage, the public can participate in online “chats” with him or send email questions to him (yet no one has verified if it is Dr. Phil who is chatting with customers; it is not possible it is Dr. Phil alone). In response to a question about loss of sexual interest in marriage, Oprah stated “Wow. You know, this is such a big issue that in O magazine this month, which is on the newsstands now, we do a big series of articles on this.” On another one of her shows, again featuring Dr. Phil, Oprah said: “Dr. Phil faces off next with cheating spouses. Oh! You’ll want to hear his no-nonsense advice on how to get over your spouse’s affair. But first, we call them Philisms. Throughout the show, Dr. Phil’s best one-liners that sometimes crack me up.” A clip is then shown in which a man asks, “Doctor, can you help me?” and Dr. Phil McGraw replies, “Yeah, I can help you. You just need to shut up and go with the flow.” Phil then says: “In a relationship, you should never invest more than you can afford to lose,” and Oprah responds: “Oh, that was good.” In a typical show: A couple is seated on air. The show is called “Dr. Phil Helps Jealous People.” The couple discloses that the husband has a serious problem with jealousy and he has had an affair himself, which his wife found out about only when she talked with one of the show’s producers. She did not know THIS would be on air (she thought she was there to discuss his jealousy on air). On live TV now (if she does not run off stage), Phil has the two sit face to face. He first tells the husband to “look her in the eye…You did it, you deal with it.” Then Dr. McGraw instructs the wife to “start talking and don’t stop till I tell you.” As she speaks, Dr. Phil directs her with statements such as “Tell him: ‘You hurt me and here is how,’ and Phil says, “You tell him right now: ‘This won’t continue. I will not live with you this way ever again.’” To the husband, Dr. Phil says: “Can you tell her, ‘The jealousy—that’s about me. It’s not about you. It’s about me.’” Dr. Phil will tell the husband, “You ask her for a second chance, and you promise her you’ll get whatever you need to turn the corner.” Dr. Phil ends by having the wife say “Jimmy, we’re not getting a divorce and we are not staying married like this either.” McGraw closes the show by saying “we’re going to watch both of you like a hawk.” The audience has passed from anxiety, to insecurity, to relief. The couple has been taken from suffering to salvation in a few minutes. Tony Robbins gets his followers to train themselves to go to an “exalted state.” Robbins began in late night television through “infomercials” for a product called “Personal Power.” In the early 1990s the infomercials exploded: these are half-hour long advertisements which feature “objective investigative reporting,” “tests of the products being sold,” “independent reviews of the products by happy consumers,” and “expert commentary” on quality issues. Robbins’ message is about grand ambitions and taking charge. Whether the subject is love or money, the same advice applies. He says “unlimited success” is obtainable in only 30 days. His followers include average citizens to pro athletes and former President Bill Clinton. He earns over $60,000 for each appearance. He made $22 million in one year through his seminars, with another $30 million from his infomercial sales. His self-improvement website is estimated to be worth $300 million. The hallmark of a Tony Robbins workshop is the firewalk or “Mind Revolution.” Robbins persuades overwrought crowds to walk across 12-foot beds of red-hot, burning logs. Advertisements for these self-help workshops promise that participants will learn to “overcome life-long fears, addictions, impotence, and chronic depression” and learn to know, instantly, the most effective ways to communicate with and persuade people.” The walk serves as both a climax to the workshop and as alleged evidence of their success. The walks are accompanied by “weeping and jubilation” and participants celebrate having overcome their fears by accessing what they have been told are their previously “untapped” mental powers. Then, in an exhausted and exhilarated state, participants are urged to buy more products or sign up for a weekend’s worth of training: “I guarantee it will be the most important weekend of your life. Put it on Mastercard or Visa—however you have to pay for it” Robbins’ associates say. A recent Tony Robbins seminar attracted 10,000 people at $50 per head. He has a “Life Mastery” week-long course which costs $6,995 per person. Scientists have proven that traversing red-hot embers without burning your feet is not due to special mental powers, but due to the laws of thermal physics and the anatomy of human heels. Red-hot wood actually has a low heat capacity as well and poor thermal conductivity, and participants’ feet are not on the logs long enough to burn. There is also the noisy atmosphere which distracts participants’ from focusing on the heat and pain that is created…