Anyone find Niambi being given a stuffed man to represent her Father and being told by Iyanla to "Go ahead and slice him open.Rip his stuffing out.Let's see what's in there."a bit odd?What did Iyanla do filch the scarecrow out of the rose garden?What kind of imagery of hostility towards males is she inadvertently conveying there?It's like she gets the idea for these things by watching reruns of "Silence Of The Lambs."If I were Niambi's Father watching this I'm not sure what I'd be thinking "Hide the scisssors."I know Niambi has conveyed that she does feel hostility for him but that just looked odd.

• RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 01:31 PM, 04-19-06
  • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Juliejo, 02:11 PM, 04-19-06
    • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 05:28 PM, 04-19-06
      • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 07:53 PM, 04-19-06
  • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,dasboot, 10:56 AM, 04-20-06
• RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Twinkles, 06:55 PM, 04-19-06
  • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 08:13 AM, 04-20-06
    • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 10:14 AM, 04-20-06
      • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 12:22 PM, 04-20-06
        • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 12:55 PM, 04-20-06
          • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 12:59 PM, 04-20-06
• RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,steelmagnolya, 01:08 PM, 04-20-06
  • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 01:24 PM, 04-20-06
    • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,steelmagnolya, 02:15 PM, 04-20-06
      • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 02:33 PM, 04-20-06
        • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 02:56 PM, 04-20-06
        • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,steelmagnolya, 03:11 PM, 04-20-06
          • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 04:58 PM, 04-20-06
      • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,GoodnightLittleBear, 04:28 PM, 04-20-06
        • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 04:35 PM, 04-20-06
        • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,steelmagnolya, 05:16 PM, 04-20-06
          • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,GoodnightLittleBear, 05:23 PM, 04-20-06
            • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,steelmagnolya, 05:30 PM, 04-20-06
          • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Baxtera, 05:23 PM, 04-20-06
            • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,Lanna42, 05:39 PM, 04-20-06
          • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,tac_2, 05:29 PM, 04-20-06
  • RE: Niambi slicing open scarecrow man.,ChristinaJB, 06:34 PM, 04-23-06

I'm telling you IV has real father issues. Then after having the girl rip him apart physically she tells her none of it's Daddy's fault it's all her projecting this on to Daddy. So you rip the man apart and disect him and then tell her he's innocent. Is IV going to testify at her trial?

IV definitly needs to go back to the lecture circuit. This one on one stuff is not her niche in life.

I feel sorry for Niambi because here we go again. Everything your daddy did to you is just okay. Its all your fault. Whatever you said aboutt your dad is really what you feel about yourself. Next Iguana will have her wash herself in some potion or throw soemthing off the balcony or sit in swamp water. Iguana is a voodoo queen.

I'm a seeeing it. It's a coomming to mmeeee!! Yes another trip into the swamp. Only the swamp can truly cleanse her. She must feel her dirt. Come to the swamp and mud wrestle with Jodi.

Baxteraon't give the focus groups in LA any ideas.Or the next thing we'll see is SO mud wrestling.Although in light of this season's HG's it seems appropriate.Match em up. Iyanla can referee.

Well, at least it was a scarecrow and not a sock puppet this time. An improvement. Wonder how many 'scarecrows' The High Priestess has slashed (literally or figuratively) in her life? Still trying to figure out that projecting thing. WTF? Hard to tell cuz I don't know the entire history of Niambi's relationship with her father but it seems like the same old hard line/double standard....Niambi doesn't get to have her pain. She's just expected to suck it up. Damn you, Iguana. Damn you!

I thought it was weird before it even got to the scissors and the ripping. To me it was a direction to look inside your fathers clothes and see what you'll find! It was oddly incestous and Then it got violent. Wheeee!

I just find a strange kind of violence towards men portrayed in this house. It just seemed really weird to be ripping apart a scarecrow of your father looking for things. Sorry but it gave me the creeps with IV telling her to go deeper, maybe IV has a future in horror movies, she definitly could join Dr. Phil in spoofing Scary Movie. I could see her doing the Scarecrow thing.

Usually Iyanla's veiled gleeful hostility in these exercises is aimed at the HG's. The strange thing about this one was that rather getting an insight into NIAMBI it felt like we were getting some strange Freudian connotation from the makeup of the exercise itself about IYANLA.It's pretty hard not to notice when she's on the sidelines cheering "Go ahead SLICE him open!"As Niambi gingerly vivisects the symbol of Daddy.I'm no psychoanalyst But yes,alittle hostility towards males indicted there.Just alittle...........God let me out of Iyanla's head again.Yuck......Iyanla can be an effective LC.Especially when the pseudo Mother role is called for but in some cases as in this one it gets strange.Yes,she could have a role in LA.I'm not thinking of the Hollywood scene exactly.But the spirit is definitely one I can identify. Nice to hear from a fellow Bostonian Baxtera.Knew there was something I liked about you.

I wonder if IV's Dad is still alive. She seems to have deep issues with fathers in general. I also find it hilarious how she's always up in arms about the married men considering her own history.

Niambia child run now while you still can. That scarecrow might start following you around.

Do you really want to delve any further into Iyanla's psyche than we already have?Scarecrow Daddy is going to have to make a pretty miraculous recovery to follow Niambi around.Although you never know.Iyanla's probably stuffing the cotton batting into one as we speak for her next client. She seems to have a thing for employing these armies of non-people in her exercises.The mannequin for Jill.The styrofoam guillotine victims heads for Allison,the mask for Jodi and now a scarecrow for Niambi.It's almost as if Iyanla is trying to populate the world with a cavalcade of messed up therapy dolls she can command at will.For all we know she props the Boo-Boo's up in their chairs at night around the dinner table.As I've said regarding Jodi "I don't know if you've actually slept with 20 men but blow-up dolls,scarecrows,statues and mannequins don't count as actual people."

Hey look at how long Jill's manequin and Jodi's mask lasted. I'm not sure we're done with this scarecrow yet.

>Anyone find Niambi being given a
>stuffed man to represent her
>Father and being told by
>Iyanla to "Go ahead and
>slice him open.Rip his stuffing
>out.Let's see what's in there."a
>bit odd?What did Iyanla do
>filch the scarecrow out of
>the rose garden?What kind of
>imagery of hostility towards males
>is she inadvertently conveying there?It's
>like she gets the idea
>for these things by watching
>reruns of "Silence Of The
>Lambs."If I were Niambi's Father
>watching this I'm not sure
>what I'd be thinking "Hide
>the scisssors."I know Niambi has
>conveyed that she does feel
>hostility for him but that
>just looked odd.

I saw the episode last night and didn't get that Niambi was "ripping" the stuffing out or that the exercise showed hositilty towards men. Niambi cut through the outer layer of clothing to retrieve her "feelings" that she had written about her father. Then those feelings were paired with her thoughts about herself which paralleled the negativity she said about her father.

I don't know any other way to have powerfully demonstrated to Niambi (or Jill with Miss Mabel) how what she projects on her father is what she feels about herself. It's breaking that self defeating attitude that will cause her to change. We know she can't change her father. I thought it was right on because it is hard for us to see how we really are or how we project ourselves to others.

Steelmagnolya, If it worked for you or Niambi that's great.I like to make fun of Iyanla because she is so(in my opinion)over the top in some of things she says and does.I think it's all in how literal an interpetation you want to give things.Personally,I tend to look at things from a pretty literal(visual) perspective.I think the symbolism has worked better for some of her clients than it has for others.

Lanna,

I too feel Iyanla can get out of hand but for the most part she has a good way of getting through to some of the ladies. Until I watched the show I just thought it was going to be some psycho butchering going on like with Kim and the knife.

You just wait, this thing has life left in it. IV will bring back the scarecrow and not let it die like Mabel and the mask it will haunt us long past and symbolic meaning.

IV is not a creative genius when it comes to moving on to knew activities. Some have said she has no choice but Rhonda seems to let go of stuff much more quickly so I do question that theory.

LAST EDITED ON 04-20-06 AT 02:57 PM (EST)

You could be right.These non-persons do seem to take on a life of their own.Maybe he'll start showing up at graduations.I'd rather see the scarecrow than some of the former HG's.I still say after they leave the house they ride around buckled into the front seat of Iyanla's car.Or their propped up in her living room chairs with their feet up on footstools pretending to sip mock martini's.What do you want to bet?

Baxtera wrote: "Some have said she has no choice but Rhonda seems to let go of stuff much more quickly so I do question that theory."

Some also say Rhonda's clients don't get much or change at all by the time they graduate (Cassie, Lisa1, Kelly, Megg) if they don't leave (Bethany, another houseguest from Season 1) or get kicked out first (Sommer, Tess, Deborah). Hmmm...Rhonda also has the rep of not being tough enough or so it seems she let Lisa 1 run over her and Kelly intimidate her.

>Baxtera wrote: "Some have said she
>has no choice but Rhonda
>seems to let go of
>stuff much more quickly so
>I do question that theory."
>
>
>Some also say Rhonda's clients don't
>get much or change at
>all by the time they
>graduate (Cassie, Lisa1, Kelly, Megg)
>if they don't leave (Bethany,
>another houseguest from Season 1)
>or get kicked out first
>(Sommer, Tess, Deborah). Hmmm...Rhonda
>also has the rep of
>not being tough enough or
>so it seems she let
>Lisa 1 run over her
>and Kelly intimidate her.

I'm not sure IV's clients get it either. Lisa 2 had to parrot the words back to IV she couldn't even be expected to memorize a script. Christine once a hooker always a hooker. Allison and the list continues. I don't see IV's success rate with the swamp monster and voodoo priestess stuff any higher than Rhonda's. At least Rhonda actually does give them some change of approach once in a while.

I myself have grown weary of Iyanla's symbolistic therapy (sock puppet dad for Jill, the mannequin etc). I was surprised that Iyanla didn't make a piņata in the shape of a john or her ex for Christina to bash around.

ROTFLMAO................What exactly would a "John" shaped pinata
look like? And would she really want to bash it?

Well I am sure we can agree the coach's strategies are different. Iyanla's is "symbolistic therapy" and Rhonda's is arts and craft therapy. Maybe there will one day be a museum of all the growth in the house...Miss Mabel, sock puppets with hair, Xtina's art, Kim's wall of anger, TJ's box and the sausage & bacon Kelly & Jodi warred over.

Don't forget Lisa2's swamp of misery, Lisa1's cage (complete with solidified puddle o' barf) and Allison's fly infested refrigerator.

>Don't forget Lisa2's swamp of misery,
>Lisa1's cage (complete with solidified
>puddle o' barf) and Allison's
>fly infested refrigerator.

Too funny...We forgot the car from the couple's therapy and the hag clothes Allison & Lisa2 had to wear.

I actually like it when they go out and talk to people who can help them with their interests and that I will say Rhonda has done. I haven't liked either the Voodo Queen or the Queen of Punishments funky hurt me whip me beat me stuff.

I think it would be practical to actually have some exercises from both coaches that didn't involve symbols and actually practical activities or even physical challenges as in the case of Jodi to work on trust and giving up control and drop boxes, cages, mumbo jumbo, incantations, puppets, masks, swamps, etc.

They have different coaching styles all right. Rhonda has the tantruming Little Miss Muffet routine and Iyanla has the Voodoo Queen/Earth Mother/Dominatrix style down pat.Both strangely effective in some cases and not in others.

Oh come on......the funky hurt me,whip me, beat me stuff was entertaining.And no matter how far down the road it went and God knows we could draw a map with some HG's they never objected.NuLisa was the worst victim of that and we all knew there was no "safe" word for her to make it stop. She couldn't even bring herself to tell the housemates that she didn't want to take her 12th shower of the day. Although after the swamp incident she may have needed it.

Rhonda's is arts
>and craft therapy.

Straightjackets, cages, enclosed boxes, locked rooms, etc.--those are artsy?

I have to respectfully disagree. Both IV and Rhonda have the same style of punishment for the women, only difference is the tools and toys they use in their 'therapy'.

Maybe
>there will one day be
>a museum of all the
>growth in the house...Miss Mabel,
>sock puppets with hair, Xtina's
>art, Kim's wall of anger,
>TJ's box and the sausage
>& bacon Kelly & Jodi
>warred over.

Sure, why not. As long as they don't turn Mr.Scarecrow into a talking puppet I think I'm okay with the SO museum idea. ;)

I really liked this exercise. It was an 'a-ha' moment for me. It is really interesting the way we do project our issues onto others and it really got me thinking about issues I think I have with other people - are they really about them, or do they really have to do with me?
Nah, it's them, right?
I'm perfect.

It's fun to make fun of IV though...