A person not well known in Chile that I think is really interesting for their thoughts and proposal, is called Humberto Maturana. He is a Chilean biologist and writer. He was born in September of 1928 and study at the secondary school Manuel de Salas and graduate in 1947, and enter to the University of Chile to study the career of medicine. He also obtained a “Phd” in biology in the Harvard University in 1958. Along with Francisco Varela, in the decade of the seventies, creating a new term called “autopoiesis”, a neologism that refers “to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself”, like one cell or nature living systems. Maturana writes a lot of articles, books, that really interesting me, because he blend the philosophy with cognitive science and biology. I think that the production of knowledge have to contain an holistic perspective.

Here is a picture of Maturana (in the left) and Varela. 

In this session with a free topic, I decided to write about a movie that I saw in this weekend. This film is called “Fight Club”, and it’s based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The movie is about a man (whose names are never mentioned) that spends a normal and monotonous life. He lives alone in a apartment in New York City, and spends his money buying useless things for his house. He doesn't have friends, and he works in an office in a car company. But he’s life changes when his department mysteriously explodes and he meets a stranger and eccentric man called Tyler Durden in an airplane travel. He chooses going to live with this man that recently knows. The things that they do together are at most illegal activities, such as creating a group which purpose is just fighting, like a street fight style. Tyler Durden is a natural leader, and the people didn't take long in following him. They finally made up a big organization with secret projects. My favorite part is when the protagonist realizes about who really Tyler Durden is. I like this movie because it is really funny, and have a social criticism in an entertaining way.

Session 6: How green are you?

In my house we are trying to make ecological bricks. To do this ecological bricks, you need some bottles with a big bottle neck (like the bottles of Whatts juice), and you have to fill them entirely with plastic, like and empty pack of noodles, cookies and any other different plastics that you can put into the bottle and push inside. We have this initiative a few times before. My parents and my sister always forget to put the plastics inside the bottle and they throw out the trash, so we have to put some reminder in the kitchen. When the ecological brick is ready, we have to take it to the center of the city, for some ecological organizations receive them. We also are growing a garden in the house, with different kinds of lettuces, tomatoes, broad beans, pumpkins and many medicinal plants, besides we plant some trees, such as peach trees and apple trees.

I think that this is not enough to help solve the ecological problems, but at least we are trying to learn more about how to take care of all the trash and pollution that we make every day. This whole world is going to the hell, we have to do something now.

When I started the career of psychology I wasn't be very sure with this option, because when I graduated from school I didn't have much clarity about what I liked to do for the rest of mi life (is that possible? I think not). I was between many options besides psychology, such as pedagogy in philosophy or history, and veterinary. Finally, I got a post in psychology with a grant, so I decided to enroll the career. In this three years, I can say that I really like some aspects from the career, like my classmates and friends, some subjects and teachers. I think that for the fact of being in an institution I will never like a career completely, any career.

Anyway, I like the things that I have learned in all this time, and I think that’s going to be very useful for the future that I want to create. I'd like to work in a social organization, with self-management and educational character. I think that when I graduate from psychology, I’m going to study something associated to permaculture and organic farming. I also like to learn more about a lot of things, like music, belly dancing and play some sports like mountain climbing. 

I don’t know much about cinema and his types, but I really like to see movies. In general, I like any kind of movies that keeps me entertained (like horror, dramatic or comedy films), make me think over, or any movies that express some aspect from reality or imagination, like artistic movies. Anyway, making movies it’s already an art.

The last movie I saw was “Tales from earth-sea” (Cuentos de terramar), from Studio Ghibli. The movie is about alchemy and magic, and tells the history of a young boy that kills his father and run away to the desert. I’ve seen many animated movies from Studios Ghibli, like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Porco Rosso, etc. I like them a lot because have ecological and social messages, and besides they have a great style in his drawing graphic.

Sixth semester

I’m in the sixth semester of psychology, so, this is my third year. In this semester of the career you have to choose your subjects. There are so many elective classes, of the different schools of thought in psychology. It took me a long time to choose my subjects and I just cold choose five subjects. I finally decided to take the subjects that I liked more, among them antipsychiatry, Jail in the current Chilean society, Soul government (about the characteristics of governmentality), and others two about psychoanalysis and Freud. But the electives have a limited number, and I couldn’t have all the subjects that I chose. Anyway, I’m happy with my subjects, and with this semester, because for first time I chose them, and they are really interesting.

My Auto Biography

Hi! My name is Carla. I was born in some hospital from Santiago or Puente alto, I don’t remember which one, but maybe it was at “Sótero Del Río”. Anyway, I have lived all my life in Pirque, it is a rural area in the south of the city. I really like to live here. When I was a child, I studied in a school very close to my house. After that, in the 2009, I went to a high school in Puente Alto, a school called “Colegio Ingles San Luis Gonzaga”, but they didn’t teach English, in fact, it is a very bad high school to tell the truth. In the 2013, I started to study psychology. Now, I’m in the third year of the career. In general, I really like some subjects, and I have made very good friends. I travel a lot of places with them.

I live with my both parents and my little sister. She is 11 years old. She likes drawing, singing and hand sewing. In my free time, I like reading any kind of books, or texts that interest me. I like sports, cycling, mountain climbing, watching movies, cooking, listening and playing music. I’m vegetarian, and I love animals.