Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Psychological Literacy
On Understanding
A friend of mine responded to my blog #104 writing that he wonders about whether anyone can understand another person. The answer is: Partially, yes, if the goal is that the other person feels understood. The best way to do this is to empathically respond to what is being said and allow oneself to be […]
Oops: Reflections on Coping with Mistakes
Sometimes I mess up. Not that it’s “my” fault, you understand. I have these foibles. Foibles are sort of mental gremlins that fuzzy my mind and generate errors. It’s their fault, so cut me some slack. Seriously, though, mere exorcism won’t do the job, and what I’m really getting at is that it doesn’t help […]
Optimal Mental Flexibility
That’s a nice way of saying “just a few screws loose,” which, it turns out, is optimal. A little tiny bit wacko or playful or silly or goofy—the terminology differs with different locales in the multiverse— is what’s needed to be creative and enjoyable to others. Too serious and you’re well, “too”—even though you may […]
Our State of Understanding
I read this line somewhere: “It is therefore crucial for any professional to under-stand how and why we behave and interact with others the way we do.” In my opinion this considerably overstates the situation. The above-quoted line was perhaps part of the worldview in the 20th century, but now in the 21st century information […]
Out in Left Field
This is ambiguous: perhaps a put-down, perhaps an expression of guarded admiration and wonder. A friend, a poet, said that she was told by a friend that she was “out in left field.” I responded: “Well, maybe left field is a good place to live. It’s a “place” or state of mind in which one […]
Overwhelmed as a Diagnostic Category
Consider that being “overwhelmed” is a valid diagnostic description. It happens frequently in mild ways: The person feels, “I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to respond. I may not be clear what is happening, I’m a bit disoriented.” It can be felt but not yet given words. The person may just […]
Philosophy: A Spectrum of Coherence
For many people it doesn’t take that much rational coordination to sustain a viable philosophy of life. Such a system can be sufficiently developed and maintained using a limited number of relatively self-evident platitudes and general social norms, loosely assembled and supported by one’s peer group. Interestingly, all that is needed is the illusion of […]
Play: “Vitamin P” for Optimal Vitality
I went into psychiatry because (1) I truly loved medicine, both the learning what we presently know about the astonishing complexities of the workings of our mind-body; and (2) more specifically, as I got into it, I found the workings of the mind-part even more of a challenge, as well as the channel through which […]
Postmodern Words—But Useful
I confess that reading postmodernist tracts is confusing and annoying—they assume the readers know their jargon. If that were true, they are truly preaching to the choir, as the saying goes. Still and all, there are some new words that I’ve found to be useful, valid, and worth spreading the word about. Logocentric: This word […]
Power of Words
I’m going to a conference titled “The Power of Words,” in Kansas in mid-September. I’ll be presenting on Role Theory as a User Friendly Language in Life. Words mean different things to different people Speaking of semantics, a friend sent me this by Simone Weil, page 271 from her Simone Weil Reader, titled, “Power of […]
Pre-Hallowe’en (2017)
It’s late September and already I saw displays of spooky sculptures and candy and such at the local drug store! It’s a time to be something other than who most people think you are. Your dark side—just kidding! But it’s true that the mind is multi-dimensional and evil as well as good is accessible and […]
Premature Closure: Some Thoughts
In a book I’ve recently begun to read, Exploring Happiness: from Aristotle to Brain Science, by Sissela Bok (2010, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), I was struck by the author’s use of the idea of premature closure. That term is also used by Erik H. Erikson as a pitfall of adolescence. It means that […]
Principles of Action Explorations
In a sense, this is a bit of a personal mission statement: I have been fortunate to encounter a goodly number of tools that I think can help humanity evolve in their consciousness. I plan to develop and promote these ideas and complexes of ideas, together and separately: 1. The goals of living become more […]
Promoting “Psychological Literacy”
In some ways, I’m actually a little behind—technologically—and more than a bit out of it—because I don’t have a television set, don’t see many movies, don’t know or care about several major sectors of popular culture (e.g., movies, sports, celebrities, television shows)! But also I realized today that in a few ways I am perhaps […]
Prosopagnosia and Other Ability Differences
In the New Yorker of August 30, 2010, Oliver Sacks wrote an article titled “Face-blind: the perils of prosopagnosia” (pp. 36-43). He himself has a moderate case of this difficulty in recognizing other people’s faces, and sometimes even neighborhoods, unless there are other guiding cues he can use to remind himself. This seems to be […]
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 […]
Psychodrama, Positive Psychology, etc.
Psychodrama offers a less specific type of positive psychology. The actual founder of PP is Martin Seligman, of course, but Seligman built on a number of previous workers. Barbara Fredrickson is another pioneer in PP. Neither bothers acknow-ledging Moreno, but I think Moreno (who created psychodrama) should be thought of as a pioneer also, whether […]
Psychological Literacy
Twenty years ago as part of my teaching at the Senior University Georgetown I gave lectures on “Psychological Literacy.” It seemed to me that it’s time to push for psychology to be taught in school as a primary topic. I looked over the names of the theories and theoreticians, and so much may be remembered […]
Psychological Literacy: Further Comments
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 is […]
Psychological Theory: Both / And
J. L. Moreno, M.D. (1889-1974) was prescient in some ways; but not in others. He was right in noticing the deficiencies of psychoanalysis, but he was biased in his own favor. Theories of psychology or psychopathology were at that time either/or not both/and, and it didn’t occur to Moreno to be more inclusive. Moreno’s insight […]
Psychological-Mindedness Confronts Simplicity
People have a deep sense of entitlement to being able to perceive and think about the world in simple terms. It’s easier to imagine that there is either sin or virtue, and we still have a subtle backwash from the belief in higher and lower classes. People feel entitled to scold: “Don’t muddy up the […]