Elizabeth Bien > Recent Status Updates

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Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading The Bluest Eye
Oh my god.

Anyone who has ever dealt with any form of self loathing will find this book relatable. While it focuses very heavily on the black experience specifically, there were elements of self loathing that I could understand and had experienced.

This book upset me, but I think that it needed to. I had to put the book down to process things. Go into this prepared.
Mar 10, 2025 12:57AM Add a comment
The Bluest Eye

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading The Narrow Road Between Desires (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #0.6)
Waiting for doors of stone with bated breath! (Why do the things I love take decades?)
Mar 02, 2025 01:45PM Add a comment
The Narrow Road Between Desires (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #0.6)

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is on page 99 of 160 of Madness: The Invention of an Idea
Chapter 4- Aspects of mental illnesses which are changed- time, space, social interactions, and self. I agree but there might be more to that.
Mar 01, 2025 06:49AM Add a comment
Madness: The Invention of an Idea

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is on page 73 of 160 of Madness: The Invention of an Idea
Chapter three finished- defense mechanisms! I agree that Freud’s establishment of psychoanalysis was important to the field of psychology, but his actual interpretations are bad science. A lot of the author’s examples that go back and cite Freud’s work to build on it, I disagree with it. I do agree with defense mechanisms and his thoughts that they exist and how they could manifest from last experience. So close!
Feb 27, 2025 06:23PM Add a comment
Madness: The Invention of an Idea

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is on page 51 of 160 of Madness: The Invention of an Idea
I finished chapter 2 yesterday, and here’s what I got out of it. When people become mentally ill, there aren't just negative symptoms, there can also be positive symptoms. I agree with that. When people become mentally ill, they’re regressing into childhood. I’m less onboard with that….but ok. When people become mentally ill, they’re regressing back in time evolutionarily. I can see the argument for that but….ok.
Feb 27, 2025 05:03PM Add a comment
Madness: The Invention of an Idea

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is on page 27 of 160 of Madness: The Invention of an Idea
Just finished chapter 1, and my thoughts are….1. A lot of these psychological diseases that are nonorganic have either been shown to never have existed or actually do have an organic origin, they just didn’t have the tools to see it yet….are there any truly non organic psychological illnesses? I don’t think so. I don’t agree with the premise here. God that chapter was hard to understand.
Feb 25, 2025 04:54PM Add a comment
Madness: The Invention of an Idea

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #5)
The spiciest of the bunch!

Nesta’s redemption arch. I still don’t like her but I do relate to her. Make it make sense.
Jun 11, 2024 02:12PM Add a comment
A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #5)

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading Pale Fire
It’s hard to get going at first. It’s hard to pay attention to what the commenter’s irrelevant comments have to do with anything, and then, it all clicks.
The last 100 pages were exciting. I recommend reading it in this order- forward, canto 1, comments on canto 1, canto 2, comments on canto 2, canto 3, comments on canto 3, canto 4, comments on canto 4.
Apr 18, 2023 03:51PM Add a comment
Pale Fire

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
This book is humorous about both the narrator’s experiences as a white American in Kenya and about his baboons. As a (fledgling) scientist who tends to get very attached to her work and anthropomorphize it, I very much understand and appreciate his honesty with his words and with his experiences. I often think about the day-to-day in similar terms, and it is comforting as well as engaging.
Jan 11, 2022 01:25PM Add a comment
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading Roots: The Saga of an American Family
This should be required reading for high school.
What I got out of “homegoing” and more.
Nov 20, 2021 08:21AM Add a comment
Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Elizabeth Bien
Elizabeth Bien is reading American Gods: Tenth Anniversary (American Gods, #1)
I love the plot.

Shadow’s passiveness/lack of emotion (which I guess make more sense towards the end of the book) angered me a lot of the time.
Sep 01, 2021 12:47PM Add a comment
American Gods: Tenth Anniversary (American Gods, #1)

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