MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

I have been reading “The Men in your Life”,   by Geneviève Antoine Dariaux,   published in 1968.    It was given to me by a friend as I have recently had a long relationship with a Frenchman.   It makes for fascinating reading, divided as it is into alphabetical subjects, covering all aspects of relationships with advice for both men and women.   It speaks of earlier days and often different morals and values to those we consider normal today and is of course presented from a French perspective. It gave me some laughs, and some reasons for deeper thought. Madame Dariaux remains firmly of the opinion that women should nurture their men – fathers, husbands, lovers, sons – in order to hang on to some semblance of order and control in their lives. And she believes that infidelity should be viewed on a case by case basis.  So…here are a few extracts, taken directly from the book… Adultery: Madame…it is far more serious a matter for yo...

Adele, singing Someone Like You After my recent post  Manners, Pen Pals...and Internet Friends  I have been inundated with emails from people with similar stories about negative internet influences on their personal lives with devastatingly painful effects.  Partners, be they personal or professional, deceiving, through a virtual life. I have explored with a psychologist how such duplicity can exist in otherwise quite reasonable  people. The condition is referred to as “internet psychosis”, brought on by the self absorbed behaviour in those who live, via the writing of blogs and chat forums, in a virtual reality. They are able to reinvent themselves to a certain extent. And with blog writers, the quality of the written word, true or not, becomes paramount, and in the most severe cases, becomes delusional.   It is increasingly becoming a psychosis seen by mental health professionals. Any breakup is painful.  But when the internet is invol...