Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Play and Spontaneity
Camp Chipaway
In my family a name sometimes captures a spirit. Allee and I call our home the “Home for Assistance in Living.” My son David came up with a new name for his office: “Camp Chipaway”! His motto is "A little bit more each day." We may adopt this name too for our world. We may […]
Certificate-Ology
With the multiplication of diploma mills, I wondered, why not? I imagined this: a fancy-schmancy sign on a webpage: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CERTIFICATE-OLOGY You can create, grant, authorize, bestow, honor, authenticate, and in other ways issue diplomas (and of course) certify as well as the best of ‘em! Deans, boards of Examiners, diploma mills, so-called […]
Chaos Amidst Order
This mandala hints at the swirling process of individuation. It’s never done. Mystically and poetically, God can’t help but to do through you. Manifestation is thus a continually evolving and shifting adventure. Stated another way, I have all these parts that re-combine in unique ways, involving temperament, talents, limitations, karmic residues, social roles, epigenetic influences… […]
Complexoids
On occasion I dare imagine elves and faeries and the like, just for fun. Looking over my cartoons I imagine there’s a “race” or category of lil’beings that are similar resonant energy fields, expressing various complexes. Just as if there’s a spirit of this tree or that rock, so too aspects of mind can generate […]
Confabulations
“Confabulation” as I learned about it almost 50 years ago is a neurological condition (when it’s done flagrantly) in which people are not obviously demented, but will immediately spin out a plausible story, a pseudo-memory, and sincerely feel that it happened. What occurred to me some years back is that (1) this is what happens […]
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 […]
Considering Creativity
Everyone is creating a little in their lives all the time. It’s a fundamental category of existence-as-becoming. Not so many people consciously create, and even fewer make creativity a specific value in their lives. Part of the problem is that creativity has a very low yield of actual breakthroughs that would be recognized by others […]
Cosmic Momma
Once in a while Zordak sends me a picture to mull on. This one I’ve been considering for a while (some years) and then she revealed the deeper meaning to me (I think). This is a mythical figure from Zordak’s universe—you know, the parallel one. There are infinite numbers of universes (as far as our […]
Creating Celebrations
Did you know you could create your own rituals, ceremonies, celebrations? I’ve written about this in a paper on my website, a chapter in my anthology, Interactive & Improvisational Drama, and also posted a supplement on my website for that book. They’ve got a national organization for training people who can serve as consultants for […]
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 Carries On
I have of late encountered a series of experiences that have delivered a reassuring and startling message: There are many who carry on the work of creativity, and many who are doing so in ways that are more refined, more radical, more elaborate, more whatever than me! A small and not-to-be-honored egocentric part begrudges them: […]
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 […]
Creativity Enhancement
I’m turning away from psychodrama as therapy and more towards "creativity enhancement.” That is to say, I’m turning more towards the use of psychodrama in non-therapeutic environments! I call this shift “action exploration,” rather than ‘psychodrama’ because it is not really “psycho” only, but also “socio”; it is often not dramatic in the sense that […]
Creativity Expansion
The creative arts therapies come out of the healing traditions; and like psycho-drama (in which I’m involved), what they’re aiming for goes way beyond the sick role. The sick role is the idea that one is well and the other is sick and creative expression would be healing. But creativity need not assume anything wrong […]
Creativity Promotion
Can we promote creativity itself? Maybe that’s like creating electricity without having devices to run. I suspect this is a theme to explore and develop. Really, what it involves is playing with stuff, people, the world, your mind, attitudes, whatever. “Can you just do that?” Sure, why not. I’ve become impressed with a dismal reality: […]
Creativity Stimulation
There’s a new technology that derives from drama and theatre, and more particularly improvised theatre. Its goal is creativity stimulation. We’ve been building creativity for a few centuries, and in the last few generations promoting creativity itself has become a goal. Now we have a technology for it: 1. Get people together sharing and […]
Culposcopy: Assessing Guilt
I was emailing with a friend and mentioned culposcopy—meaning colposcopy—I misspelled it. (It’s a gynecological procedure.) But my pal, Dr. James M. Sacks, who is both playful and wise, had the following take on it and I thought it was witty enough to post (with his permission): Dear Adam, Some of your best serious ideas […]
Dare to Be Creative
I’m wondering what I might yet do, what others are too busy to do. First, I’m not the only one, but perhaps your question will generate good things: I need help in my goals to integrate the best creative developments of the creative arts therapies. One thing I think you’ve noticed is that normal people […]
Divesting
What a word: I need to begin to divest myself of too much stuff. (My book collections are strong examples of too much stuff.) George Carlin, the late comedian, has a wonderful bit he does about “stuff.” I’m beginning to look at all my books that way—not much, but it’s a beginning. So did I […]
Doin’ Its Own Thing
Everything is doin’ its own thing, follows what the ancient South Asian Indian scriptures call its “dharma.” But the thing that everything is doing is vastly inter-dimensional, connected to many, many other things doin’ their own thing. Gravity, aesthetics, patterns, symbiotic connections, underlying similarities, the list goes on. Some things are more rapidly eventful than […]
Doinggg
It’s sort of a ringing your bell sound: Maybe it should be spelled doyngg! It’s too close to do-ing, which is also a little involved, but what is doing what in what level of the psyche-nervous system is best expressed by the feeling of “doynggg”—with some resonance at the end. This sound is related to […]
Don’t Watch It—Do It!
The number of screens is multiplying—movies, television, hand-held electronic devices, e-books, computer “games”—all “shadows on the wall,” illusions seductively fashioned to offer a hyper-reality, “bigger than life,” more wonderful than anything puny you could actually do yourselves. You can partake of this far more excellent world while in fact in your actual body-mind turning into […]
Download My Books for Free
I’m giving away three of my books for free as PDF downloads: Foundations of Psychodrama, Acting In, and The Art of Play
Drama in Everyday Life: A Type of Vital-Mind
Drama is a vitalizing dynamic. What is essential is the expression of exaggerated emotions—triumph, joy, fear, vulnerability, fear, protest, lust, greed, shame—all the colors of the rainbow. Civilization has rightfully demanded a modulation of these, but as with most social trends, driven by unintelligent minds that want simple and final answers, it overshot the mark. […]