Monday, Indianapolis, Indiana

What does your Halloween costume say about you?

The roots of modern Halloween date back many centuries. A version of it has long been celebrated to coincide with the end of the harvest. Our current Halloween is associated with the Catholic Church’s designation of November 1st as All Saints Day. For many decades we celebrate All Hallows Eve by dressing in costumes. And this, of course means the opportunity for rich psychological observations based on a person’s costume choice.

An important feature of this holiday is that it is rife with the awareness of the spiritual world encroaching on our physical world. So although the range of costumes is limitless, there is a strong association with paranormal themes. So we see ghosts, ghouls, zombies, angels, demons and witches

While there are limitless choices for a costumes there are some categories that remain popular. And your choice is always psychologically revealing; it represents a repressed fantasy. What costume are you choosing?

Super Heroes

Superman: You fantasize that you are invincible and cannot be overcome

Batman: You believe that you present an appearance of invulnerability even though your recognize that it is just a veneer, a false front, a costume

Spiderman: You are aware that you have deficits but believe that you have turned them into unique powers that make you superior to others

Celebrities

Political Character: The choice represents what you believe the culture feels about that politician and their particular points of view. Depending on the costume you are either boldly announcing your alliance or you are mocking their vulnerabilities

Sexual Character

Prostitute: A fantasy of breaking our of you routine life and venting your sexual urges

French Maid: A desire to use your sexual assets to control men who are resistant to you in other ways

Male Stripper: A longing to be the object of overt female desire and passion

Animal

Bear: Fantasy of lumbering power

Horse: Fantasy of Sexual Prowess

Classic Costumes

Princess: A yearning to be accepted as a special person, treated with deference and pampered

Hobo: You reveal your discomfort with your achievements and feel like a fraud and failure

Vampire: Focus on human deterioration and decay

Witch: A mysterious woman who is more powerful than men

Priest: Fantasy of wisdom and secret knowledge

Some Halloween Facts

About one out of five people, 19 percent, say they accept the existence of spells or witchcraft.

Nearly half, 48 percent, believe in extrasensory perception, or ESP.

The most likely candidates for ghostly visits include single people, Catholics and those who never attend religious services.

By 31 percent to 18 percent, more liberals than conservatives report seeing a specter

For more on Halloween Costumes CLICK HERE

The Films that kept America Awake!
Purdue survey reveals scariest flicks

Dr. Will Miller teamed up with Dr. Glenn Sparks, Professor of Communication at Purdue University to find out what people regard as the scariest movies they’ve ever seen. The topic was part of a larger research project to understand how media messages affect people.

In a random sample telephone survey of 200 respondents the duo found 44 movies that people identified as having particularly scared them, usually when they were teenagers. The survey found that seven movies accounted for 58 percent of all the nominations. In order of most frequent mentions,

The Seven Deadly Films" are:

1. Scream
2. Friday the 13th
3. The Shining
4. Halloween
5. Nightmare on Elm Street
6. The Exorcist
7. Poltergeist

 

 

HERE ARE ALL THE FILMS THAT WERE NAMED:

Alien
Amityville Horror
Arachnophobia
Birds
 Buried Alive
Candy Man
Cape Fear
Child’s Play
Copycat
Die Monster Die
Dracula
Exorcist
Faces of Death
Frankenstein
Friday the 13th
Halloween
Homicidal
Interview with a Vampire
Jaws
Misery
Night of the Living Dead
Night on Bald Mountain
Nightmare on Elm Street
Omen
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Pet Cemetery
Poltergeist
Psycho
Relic
Rosemary’s Baby
Schindler’s List
Scream
Seven
Shawshank Redemption
Shining
Silence of the Lambs
Silver Bullet
Terminator
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Traitor Horn
Wait Until Dark
Witchcraft
Wizard of Oz