Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Wisdom-ing
The Fuddy-Duddy Complex
This is a complex of a number of associated images, thoughts, and feelings that emerge regarding the theme of entertaining opinions and judgments about things that really don’t concern you. It occurred to me that this is a not uncommon theme for parents of adult children whose life choices differ in various ways from your […]
The Game of Philosophy
I think of philosophy as a game: It’s not a frivolous game, but rather it’s a game in the sense of challenge, flexibility, and its provisional nature. It’s a game of building the best possible explanation, a working model that accounts for an expanding range of phenomena. Of course, the game should be played with […]
The Higher “I”
I’ve become increasingly aware that I’m only part-way between me and not-me. There are parts of me that are spontaneous, and realistically speaking I should not take credit for these parts or their products. I’m tempted to say, like Jack Horner in the nursery rhyme, “Oh, what a good boy am I!” But a couple […]
The Humanities in Medicine
One of my roles is as an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the local branch of Texas A&M Medical School, where I give occasional lectures on psychotherapy. Allied to that, I have an interest in supporting those who would promote the “Humanities in Medicine.” There’s a sore need for this, because most medical students […]
The Individuality of Spirituality
This essay builds on the other essay published today, “Objective Reality,” and also points to personal expectations that go “Beyond Psychotherapy.” First, note that many of the procedures that constitute “psychotherapy” as a corrective for problematic thinking have applications beyond the medical model! They may be used for personal development, which in turn includes many […]
The Inevitability of Inconceivability
The expansion of our horizons has extended beyond mere vastness or sub-microscopic, beyond ultra-fast and astronomically slow, beyond the most powerfully energetic and near-indistinguishably delicate, to categories that become elusive and quite inconceivable. In chaos theory, the dynamics of fractals, the edges of cosmology and quantum theory and other attempts to determine ultimate principles, there […]
The Kabbalistic Tree of Life Diagram as Art
Below I’ve posted a number of drawings I’ve done over the past 30 years of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the “Etz Khayyim.” I’ve found this diagram to be useful in evoking contemplations of what’s beyond this apparent reality, and what’s beyond that beyond. The “Tree” hints at these essences that give rise to less […]
The Myth of Efficiency II
A recent conversation on email with a colleague who is interested in emotional intelligence sparked my thinking: I realize that I’ve written about the myth of efficiency before, but this just raised the theme again. He wrote, “I strongly believe that strong communication and understanding will always triumph business owners who focus mainly on numbers, […]
The Myth of Truth
Recently I wrote about the problem of truth. For many centuries the search for truth has had its own value. It seemed virtuous to be in search of truth, but villainous to question whether the goal of seeking truth was foolish. Yet I am daring to ask this, and to suggest that in light of […]
The Mythic Path (Book Review)
Feinstein, David & Krippner, Stanley. (1999) The mythic path: discovering the guiding stories of your past—creating a vision for your future. (Publisher: New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam, 1999. On page xiii of the Introduction to the 2nd edition by Jean Houston , she says, “ The zeit is getting geistier… the new mythology, […]
The Pervasiveness of Illusion
On a paper on my website I present what I said (sort of) to those attending the June / Summer program of the Senior University Georgetown, where I often teach. I find that we’ve shifted in our awareness of the pervasiveness of illusion so that instead of illusion being a sometime thing, these dynamics tend […]
The Psychology of Spirituality: Some Notes
Of course this is a vast field, but here are some observations. I was chatting with a friend who’s in the mental health field and he noted his difficulty with religion; but at the same time, seemed to be a little interested in spirituality. He mentioned John Bowlby, a psychoanalyst interested in the dynamics of […]
The Relevance of Play
Play is not just a bit of frivolity. It is deeply connected to psychological freedom, spontaneity, and creativity. To illustrate the power of overlapping properties of a dynamic, consider electricity: In the 19th century electricity was found not just to “flow,” but also to have many properties not envisioned at first, such as its relationship […]
The Roots of Spontaneity
It occurred to me that spontaneity is a natural drive that emerges when in healthy infancy and childhood kids can enjoy the innocence of feeling (1) the freedom to take it over, to do it again and again until one “gets it”; and (2) the freedom to not feel at all ashamed to ask for […]
The Seventeenth Assistant
In the great hierarchy of being, I figure that the vast cosmos has an unthinkable number of levels in many dimensions. Poetically speaking, then, I am blessed by the guidance of the seventeenth assistant to the seventeenth assistant to beings who shall remain yet unnamed in the celestial hierarchy. I allow that these folks sort […]
The Spectrum of Rational Coordination
The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) stated (as one of my favorite quotes) near the end of his book, Modes of Thought: “…The purpose of philosophy is to rationalize mysticism, not by explaining it away, but by the introduction of novel verbal characterizations, rationally coordinated.” This brief passage has impressed me mightily. (Many of Whitehead’s […]
The Truth of Truth (or Is It Delusion?)
“Aha, it all comes clear!” Such is the compelling feeling of what I heard called an “epiphanous delusion” that is a hallmark of paranoid schizophrenia. (See the Wikipedia on Apophany.) Or mystical insight. Or for that matter, any compelling insight or convergence of notions. Some of these can seem crazy to others, and some indeed […]
The Ultimate Truth (Not)
Alas, after decades of considering what’s what, it’s not so much that I don’t know—that’s true—but I am quite sure that the “everything” cannot be known. Now there’s an apophatic stance that invites dispute! I guess I agree with the postmodernist view that it’s all co-created. There are no objective standards that transcend our co-creation. […]
The Un-Acknowledged
I am reminded that for much of the world, what is history for us goes unspoken! Indeed, there are peoples who live with massive repression! Let’s not talk about that! Let’s not even THINK about that! Indeed, that is a way of life for perhaps most of the people in the world! I’m fortunate indeed […]
The Unbearable Wholeness of God
This is the title of a recent book by Ilia Delio, a Roman Catholic teacher who gained access to the writings of Teilhard de Chardin. A teacher where I used to live back in Texas—an ex-nun—wrote: Ilia Delio presents a concept of this Universal Force that we have labeled God in a broad way that […]
The Universe Next Door
Well, not exactly. One dimension over, sort of up and to the right, not that directions mean much in a cosmos of multiple dimensions. Nor is it one, but infinite in numbers—but we’ll start with one. What? You thought this was the only reality?? Okay, that’s where you are. But for me and my kind […]
The University of Yourself: A Curriculum for Integrative Learning
There are many, many kinds of learning that have to do with self-development, and that aren’t taught in most schools or colleges. Imagine you could take a major in a four-year college, one that emphasized the development of the human potential instead of the “liberal arts.” Now modify this idea so that it would be […]
The Wise-Elder Role
A friend of mine is a part of a “crone” group—no, not the withered old hag of some popular children’s stories. Unfortunate word, very age-ist. (If you floss your teeth, you need not lose them and become toothless as you age! Read more about flossing on my website.) Crone is really a term for wise […]
The World is So Full
“The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings”—so said Robert Louis Stephenson. And some wag wrote in another sense, what I perceive to be a related poem: “Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em; and little fleas have littler […]
The World Needs You
Something I think young people–and old people, too, and, really, everyone–need to hear repeatedly is the phrase, “the world needs you.” And, indeed, we do, in the sense of drawing forward the best–the talent, creativity, political engagement, work, towards helping to build a better world. I envision every middle school and secondary school hosting a […]