Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Play and Spontaneity
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 […]
Playing in the Flow
Some would call it doodling, because they can’t open to the idea that the Beyond is channeling inspirations to us every moment. It is built into our neural matrix to inhibit this inflow, lest it overwhelm us. That process of inflow, if not modulated, results—according to degrees of open-ness— in hypomania, mild mania, or total […]
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 […]
Playing With the World
“The world is so full of a number of things: I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings!” So wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, a 19th century author and poet, in his “Child’s Garden of Verses.” (Indeed, making things rhyme by having them “sound” the same became a basis for poetry, which shifts intellectual […]
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 […]
Protozoal Elves
I imagine that all life is suffused with alternative reality levels that give it energy. People aren’t the only beings with “auras,” and auras are the extensions into other dimensions of existence. It might be better to say that what we take to be “us” or “stuff” is actually also an extension into 3-Dimensional space […]
Psychodrama
My old chapter on psychodrama and many other readings on this subject are on my website. Note that some people use terms such as “clinical role playing” and “action methods.” Psychodrama has of late become associated by news reporters with any complex problem suffused with psychological implications. That is hardly its original meaning, which was […]
Putting On a Show
Hey, humans aren’t the only species that organizes a show. So do beings in other dimensions, as revealed to me by Zordak. He explains, “This is the Zig-Zag Club.” ) Of course that’s not what they call it, but their modes of communication are soooo different… You must recall that Zordak has taken classes in […]
Recent Psychodrama Postings on My Website
Now on my website with the links here is presentation on Beyond Psychotherapy , which will soon be given as a plenary presentation at the national ASGPP psychodrama conference. I speak to two issues on my mind of late: That Moreno’s methods have many applications well beyond the clinical context; and that these methods should […]
Rehabilitating “Play”
Play isn’t just for kids: It’s the essence of experimentation. I know that in the past play is just kids’ stuff, frivolous. That’s the semantics, but gradually the word is getting rehabilitated. Innovation is “in.” People are promoting creativity, and we’re seeking to develop and sustain the underlying skills that lead to creativity. Guess what: […]
Reverence for Life? Wowsie!
Albert Schweitzer said that was his goal, and I sort of idealized him. Albert Einstein, too. If I could be like them then maybe my Mom would have been satisfied. She was channeling the mores of the mid-20th century upward-striving middle class, for which nothing was good enough. I was suffering from feeling not good […]
Shifting Identities
In addition to my major profession “occupation” as a retired psychiatrist and visiting assistant professor, which I’m really not anymore since moving to the mid-California coastal town of San Luis Obispo—and becoming not-more every day—, I am presently editing a book about non-psychotherapeutic applications of Moreno’s methods. In addition, I’m editing and preparing to publish […]
Shree Yantra Live
In our world/ realm / dimension (says Zordak, my little green friend who visits me in his lil’ flying saucer thingey-o) we also have the diagram called the “Sri Yantra” as shown here: In our world it’s far more organic, slightly fluctuating, generating ever-new internal patterns. On your planet (at least in India and parts […]
Singin’ and Dancin’
I’m having a good ol’ time in my community. We dance several types of dancing—square and round, folk (I probably know over 1ooo dances and in the last 56 years done 1000 or more others), and ballroom dances. For over 14 years I’ve sung in our Sun City Texas chorus and this fall we’re rehearsing—all […]
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Lewis Carroll wrote two books in the mid-late 19th century, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass. (Lewis Carroll was his pen name; his real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Interestingly, a number of authors have had what’s called a nom de plume, a pen name.) Disney conflated those tw0 “Alice” […]
Song n Dance
I heard a performer sing old popular and Broadway songs a couple days ago, and knew some of them. It reminded me that I may not have shared that part of my life—that I made up song books, held song fests, sang songs for our Sun City Follies when we lived in Texas, programmed song […]
Sorta-Kinda 4th of July
On the planet I come from—just kidding, for those who get uncomfortable in the presence of insanity—they have an equivalent holiday for Independence Day. Everyone gets together and instead of shooting fireworks, they collectively bud fleezels, mandala-like protuberance-studded cartwheels. Fun, if you like that sort of thing. Meanwhile, the “flag” (so to speak) stands at […]
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 […]
Spontaneity Development
There are needs for this skill set in a rapidly changing world. When once young people had been taught to simply follow directions, now they’re expected to not only think for themselves, but also innovate. We’ve discovered that the key to creativity is improvisation, and spontaneity development is improvisation training. For example, Justine Jones and […]
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 […]
Sprites: Resonant Energy Fields
The category of faeries, elves, brownies, pixies, trolls, and other imaginary “little people” are not “people” as we think of them, but rather more like resonant energy fields. They can change as your mind changes, for the positive of negative. They have no form exactly, but take on the characteristics of which kinds of attitudes […]
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 […]