A Psychological Analysis of the Guardians of the Galaxy

A Psychological Analysis of all the Guardians of the Galaxy characters can be found here. Below is an excerpt on Groot :)

"Groot also understands that the destruction of his physical self does not mean he ceases to be; his sense of self transcends his recyclable body. This is an undeniable truth about emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence is our ability to process emotional information we experience and to use that information to navigate the social world. Someone with high emotional intelligence comprehends themselves in relation to their immediate social environment. That is, we are in large part defined by the close relationships we keep. Try to imagine your sense of self (what makes you you) without referencing the connections in your life, the people and animals you love and the ones who love you back. 

As such, Groot’s underdeveloped communication skills begin to make more sense– in fact, his three self-referencing words are more than sufficient when we learn about his ability to regulate his and others’ emotions. (With time, people learn the subtle inflections and nuances of Groot’s verbal expressions and can decipher the full range of his communication skills). Groot isn’t stupid. He makes us feel stupid to learn we need so many words to express our experiences, our needs, our gratitude."

450-Pound Man Didn't Go To Doctor For A Lecture - The Onion

RED OAK, IA—After his doctor ambushed him Tuesday with suggestions that his weight was becoming a serious health problem, 450-pound local man Dale Carver, 43, reportedly told his physician that he hadn’t come to his appointment for a lecture on how to live. “Look, professor, I didn’t come in here today for a lesson plan, so let’s maybe take it down a notch or two, okay?” said Carver, noting that he was a full-grown adult who had not signed up for a 15-minute sermon on the life-threatening risks of high blood sugar. “With all due respect, I’m not paying you for food recommendations, so if you could just prescribe me something for my high cholesterol and diabetes, that’d be great.” Sources confirmed that after receiving his prescriptions, Carver went outside, walked to his car, and then spent several minutes regaining enough breath to be able to drive home.

- The Onion

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"Richard Dawkins, what on earth happened to you?" - The Guardian

From the Guardian

"This is Dawkins in 2014: a figure of mockery, a man so convinced that he possesses God-like powers of omniscience that he can’t understand why everyone’s getting angry at him for pointing out the obvious. Why won’t we all just learn how to think, damn it! Then we could all live together in a peaceful society where nobody wears “bin liners”, and women shut up about sexual harassment... 

Sure, he wrote some pop science books back in the day, but why do we keep having him on TV and in the newspapers? If it’s a biologist you’re after, or a science communicator, why not pick from the hundreds out there who don’t tweet five or six Islamophobic sentiments before getting off the toilet in the morning? If you need an atheist, there are many philosophers, scholars of religion, and public intellectuals available who don’t refuse to acknowledge the existence of theology. 

Dawkins has been arrogant for years, a man so convinced of his intellectual superiority that he believes the one domain in which he happens to be an expert, science, is the only legitimate way of acquiring or assessing knowledge. All of his outbursts in recent years follow from this belief: he understands the scientific method, a process intended to mitigate the interference of human subjectivity in data collection, as a universally applicable way of understanding not just the physical world but literally everything else as well. Hence his constant complaint that those appalled by his bigoted vituperations are simply offended by clarity; feeble-minded obscurantists who cling to emotion, tradition or the supernatural to shield themselves from the power of his truth bombs. 

You don’t have to be religious to find this level of hubris baffling. In his review of The God Delusion, Terry Eagleton remarks: 

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. 

Dawkins’ narrowmindedness, his unshakeable belief that the entire history of human intellectual achievement was just a prelude to the codification of scientific inquiry, leads him to dismiss the insights offered not only by theology, but philosophy, history and art as well."