The American Spectator

Equipped with the self-revelatory means of media — blogs, podcasts, YouTube, MySpace, radio, reality television, even op-ed writers — armchair psychologists are never at a loss for new subjects. But even they might suffer from TMI (too much information) at times. These various media encourage, allow, and facilitate the revealing of personal information that many of us would either never tell, or we’d pay a therapist, or we’d find a confessor. In a sense, the modern confessor is the world at large, or anyone who’s willing to pay attention.

p>The New York Times has long parted from its motto of printing “only the news that’s fit to print,” whether reporting classified information that could help terrorists or serving as a forum for a columnist to lament her dating life. Their latest TMI episode comes in the form of a piece by Jennifer Cacicio who describes the experience of looking up an old boyfriend on MySpace and learning that he now practices a gruesome pastime called suspension. In essence, he hangs himself from metal hooks that pierce his flesh and has himself hoisted by some sort of rigging. According to Cacicio, people do this for different reasons: br> /p>

Some are in it for the rush that occurs when your body experiences something so intense. But some are looking for something deeper: to conquer their fears or push the limits of the human body. They hope to learn to let go, to move around outside their body and to experience something most others never will. Others simply seek the unknown.

br> In excellent prose, she communicates how disturbing she finds this new information about her old boyfriend. And then, she starts to play the arm chair psychologist about the man she hasn’t seen or heard from in seven years.

She searches her experience for something to explain his current state. Now, keep in mind, she could tell us about any part of her experience. No one is telling her story for her.

Explaining how they met, she describes their relationship as “a scalding hot bath that feels like comfort but in reality is scorching you.” More than anything, she writes, they were “grateful not to have to sleep alone.” Despite the unique experiences that human beings have, none of this is uncommon human experience. Many can say that they’ve been there and done that and, fortunately, moved on.

But after a few months of their “tumultuous” romance, she was pregnant. Although they were 20 and 26 years old, she explains that they were “but children [themselves].”

p>Her boyfriend’s reaction to the pregnancy? br>