Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Autobiographical
Philosophy & Depth Psychology
I’m pretty sure these two categories cannot be adequately separated. I’m not talking about the distortions of recognized mental illness, but rather the distortions and illusions imposed by pretty healthy folks who are moderately introspective and somewhat philosophical. As we have learned more about the prevalence of illusion and how compelling this is, it becomes […]
Play With Son
A snippet of correspondence between my son David and myself, to illustrate the quality of our interchange: A few days ago, he quoted a limerick told to him by his friend Kris Coppieters.: A doctor in Gastroenterology In charades drew the word entomology But no-one could guess And his act was […]
Playing with Mythic Meanings
Oh, sure, one part of life generates meaning, at first unconsciously, then more consciously. What is fun, though, is to add extras—all the possible stories that never were or are. I play many parts, some more real and serious, some more imaginal. For millennia we had stories that were sort of believed. The degree to […]
Popular Songs (1940-1980 plus or minus)
I realize that I have not kept up with modern music, with a few exceptions. I’ve found the lyrics before that period a bit insipid and after that interval bewildering. That means I’m dated, I fear. I’m reconciled to that, though I am always open to being invited to reconsider a piece. I was looking […]
Popularity
Three items on this blog: First, about popularity. When I grew up in the olden days, in the early 1950s, I had a sense that I should become popular. Something about making friends. I read books about it. “How to Make Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie was a key—but it addressed salesmanship, and […]
Postage and Online Journals
I received a link to a foreign e-journal—it’s in Roman type as well as in the foreign language. But the point is that I am impressed with the idea of an e-journal itself, which may easily outstrip the idea of the printed journal within a decade. In some ways I regret this, because I was […]
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 […]
Pre-Summer Solstice ‘18
We are approaching the summer solstice in a couple of weeks. It’s 8:30 PM and there is still a pick cloud in the evening sky, while it’s darkening—but not yet dark. I’m very happy because (chiefly) I have a wonderful and beloved wifey who attends to my needs while also attending to many other things. […]
Pretending
I pretend a lot! Part of me is a bit like the little bird, Woodstock. Part of me is a little like the dog, Snoopy. He’s not really a dog, please not. He pretends he is, and Charlie Brown pretends he is. I love Snoopy—love, love, love. He’s so many things. He’s a vulture and […]
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 […]
Priorities!
I just opened to the fact that I’m not just growing older, but I’m getting old. (I’m 80.6 or thereabouts.) What this means to me: 1. My mind is going a little. I can’t recall facts as well as I used to. I’m still pretty sharp, but not how I used to be. It’s […]
Priorities: A Scale
A friend asked about my priorities in life. After some pondering, this was my response, in the form of a mini-essay, after some pondering. (Such questions are truly food for thought!) Well, I have a bucket list, things I want to do before I kick the bucket. Really, there are fuzzy boundaries. But still, consider […]
Prioritizing
My guardian angels are reminding me through many channels that I’m gonna die. My days are numbered. Maybe 4, maybe 4,000, maybe 40,000. So consequently—there’s a word I haven’t used for a good long while—I need to prioritize. In other words, what’s my bucket list? Not easy, but not that hard, either. First, keep on […]
Prolific Thinker of All Thoughts
That’s how my pal Russ Williams addressed me. Yes, I replied, “Ptat”, an acronym that’s sort of spat out, related phonemically to the Al Capp (cartoonist of Li’l Abner) p’tooey. So this essayette focused on the object of the sentence: All Thoughts. Now here we have a category that is not only vast, but fuzzy […]
Pronoia-2
A friend asked, “ Won’t “they” be mad?” I replied: Great question. Actually, “they” hardly know I exist any more. Alas, “they” haven’t been persecuting me at all since the FBI-CIA have looked at their budget and reassigned priorities. (Just kidding! Not really paranoid!) My contact—you know? The one who used to beam threatening messages […]
Propaganda
As we begin the debates and the next round of political jostling for public office, I’m reminded that I’ve been interested since my early teen years 65 years ago in propaganda, the way the newspapers and other media can and do distort the truth. The old term for this is “rhetoric,” and I think they […]
Pseudo-Hypo-mania?
My son has reacted to my bursts of postings: “ Pa’, do we need to adjust your medication or something?!” He was kidding, but he’s got a point. It does seem to be a lot for ordinary mortals. I am not all that much “better,” but I’m certainly not “ordinary.” (I used to think that […]
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 […]
Psychiatry History
Yesterday I put up some ideas about permeability that in their implications, metaphysically, may challenge the entire materialistic and positivistic paradigm of the modern era. Lest I seem grandiose, it’s only speculation. I might well be mistaken. But still, that’s my role, to fool around, to explore, to draw cartoons, dance, joke, get serious, get […]
Psychodrama Research
Psychodrama research falls victim to the same pitfalls as psychotherapy research: The mind is many-leveled. There is thinking, and thinking about thinking, and pathological and unconscious dynamics, namely the multi-leveled functionality of symptoms. Symptoms are also expressions of the deep self. (I confess to being influenced by the “wild analyst” Georg Groddek, who was a […]
Rain! Ahhhh!
Being in a time of drought is intriguing. Today it is raining. Don’t know how long it will go, but Allee and I are savoring looking at it. There’s a singing group named “Ladysmith Black Mombaso” who in the 1970s (?) had a record (back in the olden days when there were vinyl 33.33 rotations/per/minute […]
Re-Prioritizing
Revising my “bucket list”—i.e., the things I want to do before I kick the bucket. Here’s how I think about it. Let’s say there are a thousand things I might do, and let’s plot them on a spectrum from 1 for things I hate to do to 100 for things I love to do. Most […]
Really, Really Like
There are tons of things I don’t care for that much. Meh. Some stuff I prefer not to encounter, engage, hear, go to. I don’t need to put them down, but they’re just so not my cup of tea. And then there are things I sort of like. And things I really like. But what’s […]
Reconsidering the Oedipal Complex
I’m thinking that a little bit of this is a good thing. I was watching an attractive young mother coo over her baby, about 9 months old, and I thought, “Hm, I want an Oedipal complex. I don’t want to marry Mom or have sex with her, but I do want her to absolutely delight […]
Reflections of a Gran’popala
Dear “Junior Kiddos” (I am blessed with four darling grandchildren, ages six through eleven, and what with my beginning to post on this blog and their getting old enough to read, I have hopes they will read this. But of course it’s also addressed to kids everywhere and perhaps also will speak for and to […]