Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Psychological Literacy
The Spectrum of Pretense
I saw the cartoon-graphic movie, The Rise of the Guardians, yesterday, and something in it repeatedly brought tears to my eyes, especially in the second part. At first I didn’t know why it touched me so, and then these thoughts came to me: I have preserved a capacity to imagine and pretend, what some might […]
The Super-Conscious “Unconscious”
It occurs to me that it’s possible that what people call the unconscious mind is at least partially super-conscious. It isn’t repressed so much because it’s nasty and we don’t want to think such thoughts, but rather the things it’s thinking are so subtle that they can’t be recognized, or so subtle that there are […]
The Wise-Elder Role
A friend of mine is a part of a “crone” group—no, not the withered old hag of some popular children’s stories. Unfortunate word, very age-ist. (If you floss your teeth, you need not lose them and become toothless as you age! Read more about flossing on my website.) Crone is really a term for wise […]
Thinking About Believing
A friend cited a book by Julia Kristeva (a psychoanalyst / philosopher / writer): "This Incredible Need to Believe,” and noted one of her points: We cannot interact with this world, even speak one word, without believing: – that there is a real person opposite one; and – that this world is real, not some […]
Thinking About Trauma
I think it useful to consider that there is a spectrum of trauma from the mildest to the most severe. On one hand, I’m inclined to say that it does not meet the requirements for being considered “trauma” unless there is a radical break with what the psychiatrist Jules Masserman in 1953 called the “Ur” […]
This is “My Brave”
Moreno’s theory of group work did not necessarily involve psychodrama. Of course it bridges over naturally, but my emphasis here is that just doing it openly in a group has healing power. There is a website called www.thisismybrave.org that opens mental illness up wide! Wow!
Too Much Too Much-ness
My darling wife Allee was talking about a book she was reading about mothers and daughters, and commented that the author of one of the chapters overdid it on the use of the Jungian idea of the “Shadow.” I think this is a useful concept, so I asked her to explain. It turned out that […]
Tooting Your Own Horn
“To think: I did all that…” a fragment from Frank Sinatra’s theme song, My Way. A little of this—maybe 7 – 12%—is good. More begins to become sort of “narcis-sistic.” Less is too deferential. More is tiresome for others; 20% is annoying; and if you toot your own horn at 30% or more you become […]
Toward the Popularization of Psychology
This has become a trend towards popularizing psychology, beginning almost a century ago, but this hasn’t happened, because vested interests in traditional religion oppose it. (One of the main doctrines in popular psychology, as I see it, is that we fool ourselves, and becoming aware of the many ways we do this would benefit humanity. […]
Two Types of Foolishness
My point here is that worry and grumpiness are forms of folly that are remarkably seductive. They feel entirely plausible in the moment, so if you’re not alert, they’ll fool you. (A good deal of foolishness or folly comes from fooling yourself with thoughts and emotions that seem okay, but on reflection from the perspective […]
Types and the Power of Folly
How much insight can we expect people to develop in our time? I am wary about this, because it seems to me that very few people value or expect to experience true creative breakthroughs. That expectation is a rare “meme”—a term for an idea that catches on. In contrast, a meme that has widely caught […]
Unhelpful Overgeneralizations: A Form of Psychobabble
One of the common pitfalls in counseling is the use of words and phrases that are unhelpful generalizations. Consider these, among others controlling self-deceptive narcissistic don’t trust me defensive repressed paranoid inappropriate manipulative neurotic difficult unresolved conflicts stubborn superficial regressing fixated resistant selfish aggressive too sensitive fragile lazy immature feeling sorry for yourself hostile self-centered […]
Vaguely Quantitative Psychology
Sometimes I use percentages with decimal points when I write or talk, as if I knew with some precision what I was talking about. I don’t. These numerical affectations suggest two things: First, on one level, most of the time, I am serious about the general proportion involved, though the actual number really may be […]
Victimoid Cruelty
I coined this term to describe a type of subclinical emotional abuse that arises not from the cruel person’s feeling of power, but rather a kind of grumpy defiance. I also think that for every situation in a marriage or family where there’s recognizable emotional abuse—not to speak of the other kinds of physical or […]
Vitality Enhancement
This is my term for a very valid activity. This phrase is needed. Of course it’s also recreation, but that category has been co-opted by two activities that may offer illusory gratifications. One is competition, which often is so focused on the winning that the fun is lost. The second gratification is vicarious. There’s a […]
Wacko
Wacko (i.e., without a h) is useful. Whacko seems to imply violence, while wacko is charmingly fey. Anyway, seeing myths everywhere? Indeed, there are some new books about the God myth. I believe in a God of mystics, but it is quite undefinable. After all, myth is only a word, an abstraction, a story. "There" […]
Waking Up a Little More
I’ve been waking up to ways I’ve been asleep or veiled in ignorance or self-deception, and one of the things I’ve woken up to is the idea that lots of other people are as caught up in illusions as I’ve been. Everyone has a somewhat different combination of thousands of illusions and self-deceptions. Digging out […]
Watch Your Language: On Self-Scolding
I was talking with a friend who heard a sermon about taking God’s name in vain, and what this conversation reminded me of is that even if one doesn’t believe in the idea that the god of a hundred billion galaxies and more could have what we could ever begin to know of as a […]
What is Applied Theatre?
There’s an emerging field, a sub-set of the theatre arts, that differs from ordinary theatre in that it’s not done just for entertainment. It’s used for education, social action, community-building, recreation, personal development, therapy and rehabilitation, business, religion, and so forth. It’s been emerging for a few decades, but most modern books on theatre don’t […]
What Isn’t Said Overtly
I’m presenting at the annual meeting of the British Psychodrama Association, a keynote workshop on the general conference theme of innovation and integration in psychodrama. I have much to say didactically and will post that on my website—the workshop itself will be mainly experiential. The key innovation to be presented there is simply a heightening […]
What Should Young People Be Learning
In the June 7, 2010 issue of the New Yorker on page 21 there is an article about whether college is really cost effective. My attention was caught by the statement that skills appropriate to the workplace include the ability to “resolve conflict and negotiate,” “cooperate with others,” and “listen actively.” What strikes me here […]
Why Enactment?
Enactment involves physically “doing” the action implied, rather than just thinking or even talking about it. It embodies the encounter that’s implied. Enactment is needed because it “anchors” what is expressed and associated insights in consciousness. One is more likely to remember the the intention behind the action or other thoughts that come to mind […]