I'm in the 'state of mind' stretch in the 600's and after having a hard time coming up with memorable images, I realized it's not just because 'state of mind' is an abstract concept... but the keywords it's paired with are ALSO abstract ideas: disconcerted, accustomed, remorse, busy... two abstract ideas paired together makes concrete images a pain.

I wish I knew earlier about the idea to use Data (from Star Trek) for state of mind... too late for me, I used him for 'correct', since he tends to always say "That is correct." I used a different person for State of Mind, but the keywords it's paired with are proving to be a pain.

My usual tactics when I come to these kinds of keywords are:
1. Use a memorable song lyric that includes that word, and just use the singer for it in the story.
2. Use a memorable quote or saying that includes the word and incorporate an exaggerated, concrete version of that quote in the story.
3. Use another sense of that keyword that DOES have a concrete image, or focus on parts of the keyword that can form a concrete image. This is a last resort, because I think it's best to keep the intended sense of the keyword intact.

So, for example, on 'disconcerted', I imagined my 'state of mind' guy being denied entrance into a concert (he was dis-concert-ed, lol), and in retaliation, laid waste to the whole venue. I tried to incorporate the original sense by adding that he gets a disconcerted look on his face when they won't let him in. Not perfect, but did the trick.

For 'concept', focused on the CON part (as Heisig hints at), I imagined a CON-man who connects a Firewire cable from his heart to different artist's and scientist's hearts (an INTER-connection) to steal the concepts in their hearts.

Some of these State of Mind ones are real buggers though... what have you guys found to work for you?

Bender from futurama and Tin Man from Wizard of Oz are also popular images for that radical. I prefer Tin Man due to nothing else than the "heart shaped locket" he gets at the end of the movie.

[Zgarbas]

Freud(paired with Freud's momma jokes)

I found them easy, since most of them are emotions (same goes for stuff on top of the heart primitive, though not nearly to the same extent). Even busy can be described as a state where there are no emotions (dead), since you're so frantic to get things done you have no place in your head for emotions. The only remotely difficult one I found was pocket, and even that I learned after 3-4 failures with a completely nonsensical phrase ("pocket is a demolishing emotion", makes no sense even to me, but every time I see the word in Anki I immediately think of the phrase).

I started with "heart attack" or "cardiac arrest". It seemed good at first (someone who is always busy at work finally gets a cardiac arrest and dies, for instance), but in the end things didn't go very well.

As it was too late for me as well to incorporate Data, I switched to the Tin Man. Worked better, but for me it wasn't as memorable as I first thought.

A whole class of androids (who lost their hearts or who looked for brand new ones) made its entrance: kept the Tin Man, added The Bicentenary Man, even (strangely enough, I must admit, but worked great for "pocket") Doraemon... Too many of them to keep them tamed.

And then I made a new discovery: Robocop. He's really memorable (for me at least) and has a lot of possibilities: he is ingenuous and childish sometimes, but kills people, and even so, he is the good guy; he has a really memorable "pocket", and he can shot "silver" bullets in some stories... I'd give him a try.

omg, I'm so glad I found this thread. I thought I was going crazy when I started getting all of the State of Mind kanji. Thank you for letting me know I'm not alone. Great advice, and I'm going to try them out next review!

EDIT: Using Data for State of Mind solved EVERYTHING! My stories were all based around asking "How would Data behave in this state?" "Would Data even behave in this state, and why or why not?" "What is the only way Data would behave in this state?" Such a simple fix!

Bumped this thread because I am having a lot of trouble with renaming the "state of mind" primitive ("state of mind" by itself is too abstract for me). I'm having to skip the string of kanji around frame 600 involving the primitive because I don't want to pick an image for "state of mind" that will not stick.

Data doesn't work for me. I didn't grow up watching Star Treck or many old TV series. I do play a lot of video games and have been having relatively successful making references from them, if anyone wants to shoot something my way.

Edit:

And while it isn't really an abstract keyword, I am also having trouble picking my "person" 人. I was originally skipping through kanji in RTK, going by 2k1KO order, until I got to this kanji, where I then went back to fill in what I had missed (and now I'm dealing with the "state of mind" business). Anyway, I know this "person" is used quite frequently and so it must be variable enough to make great stories with. Also, it would likely help if this person has a unique personality, too--not someone who is generic and so can be easily forgotten. I never watched the A-team, and even though I know who Mr. T is, I'm not sure how creative I can get with using him in stories (I create a lot of my own stories).

KanjiCrosser Wrote:Bumped this thread because I am having a lot of trouble with renaming the "state of mind" primitive ("state of mind" by itself is too abstract for me). I'm having to skip the string of kanji around frame 600 involving the primitive because I don't want to pick an image for "state of mind" that will not stick.

Data doesn't work for me. I didn't grow up watching Star Treck or many old TV series. I do play a lot of video games and have been having relatively successful making references from them, if anyone wants to shoot something my way.

Edit:

And while it isn't really an abstract keyword, I am also having trouble picking my "person" 人. I was originally skipping through kanji in RTK, going by 2k1KO order, until I got to this kanji, where I then went back to fill in what I had missed (and now I'm dealing with the "state of mind" business). Anyway, I know this "person" is used quite frequently and so it must be variable enough to make great stories with. Also, it would likely help if this person has a unique personality, too--not someone who is generic and so can be easily forgotten. I never watched the A-team, and even though I know who Mr. T is, I'm not sure how creative I can get with using him in stories (I create a lot of my own stories).

I found Mr T really helpful for stories, even though I never knew what the A team was, and only know him from a snickers advert.
For "state of mind" I would suggest using the phrase "state of mind of ..." with whatever the key word is. Sometimes, you'll add them, but they won't stick immediately, but later on, you'll find they do, or that you got inspiration for an awesome image or something...