Adam Blatner

Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner

April, 2011

Psychiatric Practice: Not What It Was

A colleague recently asked me why I was not still in practice. I felt awkward, because if I kept up with the news, I could be just as good a clinician as I ever was—and my wife said she thought I was pretty good—as have some colleagues, etc. But the field has changed! In the […]

Posted in Autobiographical, Psychological Literacy, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry | 1 Comment »

Evolving Consciousness Through Drama

One set of tools for evolving consciousness involves the integration of elements of drama—not the kind where people memorize lines written by someone else and repeatedly rehearse those lines and scenes—that’s what has come to dominate theatre arts, alas—but rather improvisational and interactive types of drama. I think that the unfolding field of applied theatre […]

Posted in Essays and Papers, Play and Spontaneity, Psychodrama | No Comments »

Humans and Machines

I want to consider the idea of humans and machines: I don’t want to be too quick to dismiss the value of machines—they are tools that extend human potentials. That in many ways our society is infused with machines, computers, robots, etc. is not the problem—nor that it is likely to become more so. The […]

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Forms of Foolishness and How to Resist Them

The point of this series is that knowing about the various types snares and traps that lure us into foolishness may help us to resist or minimize their impact. What I mean by “foolishness” is sort of compounding of ignorance and pride. The ignorance is morally neutral: There are innumerable items we don’t know—and a […]

Posted in Follies, Psychological Literacy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »

Illusions and Foolishness I

A few months ago my son David and I were chatting about ways people lapse into illusion and foolishness, and he suggested that I write it up as a book, or at least put it on the blog. I came up with several score items—well, actually I blurted out, “There are a hundred of them!” […]

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Spontaneity Development

I met a woman who teaches a type of sport to teenagers—I’ll leave the specifics out for the sake of confidentiality—, and her point is to help the youngsters show some drama, liveliness, the opposite of seeming “wooden” to onlookers. The kids are so intent at performing well that their faces seem fixed: all their […]

Posted in Essays and Papers, Play and Spontaneity, Psychological Literacy | No Comments »

Born to Sing

A wonderful early evening walk in Springtime around the neighborhood, a nice opportunity to work out a bit with my hand-held dumbbells, chat with my dearest Allee,  and delight in the “Shiva” thin crescent moon she pointed out. Then there was the song of my totem animal, the mockingbird (mimus polyglottos) in a passing tree.  […]

Posted in Autobiographical, My Favorite Things, Spirituality and Philosophy, Whassup? | No Comments »

Implications of Science on Theology

I contemplated God today and took a turn for the apophatic in contrast to the cataphatic way to appreciate divinity. While cataphatic speaks of the positive qualities of God, the apophatic speaks of what God is not, how God must transcend all notions that can be conceptualized by humanity.   In supporting my thinking, I considered […]

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Dimensionality Reconsidered

David Blatner is my son, of whom I am extremely proud. He’s writing a book titled “Spectrums.” He shares with me (and Zordak) an astonishmentality about this universe we inhabit. He wrote to me (as a note in preparing his book on Spectrums): “If earth were the size of a grain of salt, our solar […]

Posted in Foolin Around, Spirituality and Philosophy, Zordak's Journal | No Comments »

The Myth of Truth

Recently I wrote about the problem of truth. For many centuries the search for truth has had its own value. It seemed virtuous to be in search of truth, but villainous to question whether the goal of seeking truth was foolish. Yet I am daring to ask this, and to suggest that in light of […]

Posted in Follies, Spirituality and Philosophy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »

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