Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Psychological Literacy
Socio-Psycho-Analysis
Reflecting on over 35 years as a psychiatrist, I think that at least half of the problems people have psychologically are due not to the quirks of their own minds or the particulars of their family makeup, but rather that they (1) believe the common (non-)sense ideas of their culture, following a host of social […]
Sociometry in the Family
Comments on a cover article for Time Magazine of October 3, 2011—title: Mom liked you best* (*of course she would never admit it); (author: Mr. Jeffrey Kluger). It’s good that this theme is brought up again in an era in which social psychology is coming more into prominence, gradually competing with the trend towards focusing […]
Sociometry: An often-overlooked dimension of social psychology.
One of the more important dimensions of psychology operates not so much in the mind of the individual but rather in the interpersonal field. (This is perhaps why it was missed by the psychoanalysts.) One pioneer, Dr. Jacob L. Moreno, in the 1930s, noticed this dynamic and tried to find ways of measuring it. It’s […]
Spectro-Psychography
This is a neologism, a word I’ve just made up: So far it’s not on Google. It refers to the consideration of the ways mental phenomena can be viewed as a continuum, with different areas possessing different qualities. These are innumerable and I invite you to play. Send me your ideas and if I like […]
Spectro-Psychography II
For some time I’ve been thinking about how there are so many things that are best thought about as as spectrum, from too little to just right, to too much. I hinted at this in my post yesterday and wrote about this also on my website Another boost to this idea was the work my […]
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 […]
Square Dancing as Spiritual Practice
I went square dancing last night and it is a particularly wholesome experience. It occurred to me that square dancing is also a spiritual activity. On the surface, the dancers, groups of four couples (eight people), are teams that are just trying to follow directions. They’ve learned the calls, but they’re just complex enough so […]
Story-telling and Truth
People keep up their interests by wondering about what happens: Did it have to happen that way? What was behind what happened. Why did he do it that way and why did she take it this way? What might happen next and what might lead up to that? Which factors contributed to this situation? What […]
Strung Out and Spread Thin
Perhaps I’m being a sort of "Cassandra here, shaking my tambourine and prophesying, but it must be said: “Overload!” The information explosion and media glut has arrived. We are in exponential times, with accelerating everything. The trickle became a creek, a stream, a river, a delta, a flood, an ocean, and a tsunami, all in […]
Subtle Arrogance?
What other term should be used for the all-too-common set that doesn’t recognize vividly that it might be mistaken, or limited? The illusion that what one knows is sufficient is the foundation of a great deal of error, and error can easily be magnified into great evil! This is an amplification of the words of […]
Subtle Oppressions (I): Role Overload
There’s a rather unpleasant yet widespread story that if a frog is put into hot water it will jump out, but if put into cold water and the water is very gradually heated, the frog won’t notice until it dies of hyperthermia (i.e., too high temperature for life). I don’t know that this is even […]
Surrealism’s Relevance
Creativity is our new meme—the theme that is relevant for our time. The surrealistic artists anticipated this by a century, but so much creativity has characterized the many “inventions” of the 20th and beginning 21st century that it’s time we became aware that, as the philosopher Nikolai Berdyayev said (in Rissian), “Be creative, and foster […]
Symbols of Selfhood
On my website I write about the experience of being a coherent “self” as an aggregate experience, a sort of sum of a score or more of different types of sensory and cognitive input, and each type may in turn have numerous sources. These become more intense or more dilute, and sometimes other experiences happen […]
Taking Stock
This phrase is used as an opening to an idea that people should re-evaluate their lives periodically, perhaps as often as they change-up their computer systems. Changing circumstances, growing maturity, refined values, all are appropriately met with a taking of time, respecting oneself enough, to take stock of priorities. Since life is so complex and […]
That’s What It’s All About! (General Philosophy)
This conclusion in the song, “The Hokey Pokey,” addresses the existential and widespread question: What is it all about? What is the purpose of the Cosmos? What is God’s purpose for Humanity? What is the Meaning of my life? Happily, I have an answer. I’m not saying it’s the right answer, or the final answer, […]
The “Ethos of Effort”
This term refers to the un-thought-out valuing of effort, trying hard, doing your best. I was a little delayed in popping out of bed, enjoying the relaxation of sleeping, then enjoying a relaxed contemplation, but I was a little jolted by a guilt spasm at my lackadaisical behavior. I heard the line from and old […]
The Adaptive Unconscious (Book Review)
Timothy D. Wilson, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, wrote a lovely book titled “Strangers to ourselves: discovering the adaptive unconscious. (2002, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap press of Harvard University Press). Lovely book that is worth studying. It seems to me that it overlaps with my theory of the Amplified Unconscious, and, indeed, I […]
The Amplifying Unconscious (Part 2)
[Please see Part 1 for an introduction to this: I am suggesting a second type of unconscious process that is far more powerful, less rational, far quicker in processing, far more clever, and that this hypothesis accounts for many previously-inexplicable psychological phenomena.] The Ordinary “Muddled Middle” Unconscious I’m a psychiatrist who was trained in the […]
The Amplifying Unconscious (Part 5)
This continues my reflections on what has occurred to me as a parallel, more “powerful” function of the unconscious. Today I’ll talk about dreams, the problem of “control,” and the nature of inspiration. As I’ve noted, this process seems to be more compelling, more able to capture our minds in the web of illusion and […]
The Archetype of Complacence
This phrase describes the deep tendency, when we learn or discover or invent something, to settle into that novelty as if it’s the end-point. Of course, it is not: There is always more to know, discover, and further refinements to whatever we invent or use. Since we don’t know what might be better, our experience […]