Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Psychological Literacy
Confabulation
This involves the mind’s propensity to just make things up. It’s an unconscious “mechanism” that is also called “confabulation.” We should not underestimate this dynamic. It makes dreams seem so real while you’re dreaming; it accounts for people swearing that they saw someone or experienced something that in fact they didn’t (i.e., “false memory syndrome”), […]
Confabulations Journal
Following on the previous blog, go to my website and browse my series of cartoon-illustrated personal fun “Confabulations: A Journal of (Very) Speculative Philosophy. (It turns out there is actually a journal of speculative philosophy so I had to add the “Very”!) My journal, so to speak, has been produced as a vehicle for the […]
Confidence or Arrogance?
Many people think they know, or they give out to others the attitude that they believe completely in what they’re saying or doing. Examining history, it’s clear to me that nobody ever should be fully confident, because humans cannot know the full extent of the impact of their actions. A measure of at least 10% […]
Consciousness-Raising
(This was written more than a week ago, too) The first point is to recognize that people can participate in raising their own consciousness. This is not a small step. Most folks take their own view of life, the world, people, themselves, pretty much for granted. It is what it seems to be. But of […]
Considering Socio-Cultural Factors
We should consider the socio-cultural factors operating in a situation. (Some of the factors in human development are discussed on another paper on my website. In the future, I’ll explore in another paper some of the factors in adulthood, too, including socio-cultural factors—but of course I won’t pretend to be comprehensive.) Considering the socio-cultural factors […]
Contemplating Entitlement
I addressed the theme of entitlement six years ago, but more needs to be said. First, this is mainly unconscious, and were I to confront most people, if they didn’t punch me in the nose, they’d look with wide-eyed and sincere bewilderment: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” After all, entitlement is sometimes […]
Contemplations on Consciousness
I’ve been enjoying an exchange with some friends about current arguments relating to the possibilities that computers will reach the point of consciousness. I doubt this for the following reason: The whole enterprise hinges on a deep misunderstanding of the mind as rational, logical, and therefore reproducible via algorithms of sufficient complexity. But this is […]
Countering Annoyance at Distractions and Focusing My Priorities
Increasingly in the last year I’ve grown noticeably slightly annoyed at all manner of things, activities that were distractions to my growing focus. I’ve been a little bit puzzled by this reaction, since it seemed new. Then I realized that the annoyance was an externalization—as if the lure of other things was being promoted by […]
Creativity & the Arts Therapies
In response to a request to speak to some students of one of the arts therapies at a college in the USA, I contemplated what such students need to hear. I asked about improvisation as a theme and the teacher noted that developing skills to promote improvisation in art media—music, dance, art, poetry, etc.—is indeed […]
Creativity Development
This may become another cultural institution, located somewhere between spirituality development (which is one way of thinking about modern religion), education (especially modern kinds, like Montessori for older youngsters), continuing education and recreation (recognizing that one keeps learning and reinventing oneself throughout life), and so forth. Creativity development, in retrospect, has been located to some […]
Creativity Enhancement
As I grow older, I’m interested in applying new age ideas, singing songs, psychodramatic methods (but only with people with fairly good ego strength). I’m rather finished with psychiatry, trying to help most people—I estimate a least 50%—who don’t want psychotherapy or any kind of mind expansion. I address rather those who are open […]
Critical Thinking Needed!
We are given so very many ways to think and so many things to think about. (I’ve chosen to not think about an ever-increasing variety of things that I used to feel obliged to think about, but now I’m focusing a bit.) We’ve also begun to be given more ways to think about the ways […]
Cut Me Some Slack: Forgiveness or Excuse?
My dear wife Allee is one of the most meticulous and intelligent people I know, and recently she was bemoaning her own lack of clarity: She had composed an email to a friend and on receiving a response that had obviously misinterpreted her message, realized that what she had sent was understandably confusing. I was […]
Cybernetic Communications
Folks used to think that communications were simple. I say X you understand X. Then we realized that to communicate well, the sender must be clear—from whence came editors, spell-check, revisions, etc. And the receiver should be educated. And/or the sender must calibrate vocabulary etc. to the level of the receiver if the goal is […]
Dear “Kids” (To mid-life adults!)
What a funny phrase, “kids.” On one hand, you’re “our” kids, and on the other hand you’ve moved through young-adulthood, career development, parenting, and are now middle aged! You have kids! But what else should we call you?! I still hear the verse from the song, “Sunrise, Sunset” from the 1960s hit Broadway Musical, Fiddler […]
Deffils (Imps of the Mind)
I think that one of the most useful things we can do is to confront the little niggling voices in our minds that drag us into lower consciousness. There are many kinds of foolishness, and some of it feeds on ignorance, mainly. What I call “deffils” (rather than devils) are little complexes that are often […]
Deffils (Part 1)
This word, “deffil,” describes a complex in the psyche that seems innocent and blame-free, at one level; at another level, this same complex may be recognized as foolish and naive; and at a third level, deffils in the long run have a thousand times more aggregate power to generate evil than clever, wicked, sociopathic, scheming, […]
Deffils (Part 2)
As I said in the last blog entry (yesterday), deffils are the personification of the tendency to buy into simplistic beliefs. Another form this takes is to identify with the role of innocent victim, projecting one’s selfishness on the blameworthy “other.” This justifies defensive aggression: Get them before they get you, undermine your culture. Again, […]
Differences in Strengths and Weaknesses
Intellectual strengths and weaknesses may overlap with temperamental ones. I have a mild case of Asperger’s Disorder which, I think, operates on a spectrum. Severe is autism. Mild is Asperger’s. But the spectrum goes on: Social Learning Disability, average, and socially talented—“the hostess with the mostest” as they said of Pearl Mesta in the 1950s. […]
Dogma in the Postmodern World
As we’ve become increasingly aware of the nature of mind and its intrinsic complexity, I perceive a rationale for a postmodern perspective. The perception of a non-trivial truth must resonate through the wholeness of our being, and as we recognize several elements, the idea that two people can deeply experience (perception plus interpretation) in the […]
Doubling for Empowerment
I was struck by a workshop announcement that included the following questions: “How do we hold fast to our values and stand up for our beliefs, when telling the truth often challenges the very systems which surround and govern our daily lives? As healers or clients, how can we claim our deepest beliefs and find […]
Doubling: Helping to Express the Unspeakable
Sometimes poets and songwriters say well what one can hardly express. A successful poem or song can express more poignantly, or beautifully than people’s more mundane feelings and thoughts. I’m reminded of a verse by a song sung by Roberta Flack in the 1970s, “Killing Me Softly:” “I heard he sang a good song, I […]
Early Childhood Illness
While I was traveling to see family recently, I encountered a parent with her little boy of about 18 months of age, the child being extraordinarily fussy. I found him deeply annoying, and reflecting on this reaction, I wondered how my mother might have felt—not to speak of my older brother and father—when I, as […]