Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
July, 2010
Philosophy: A Spectrum of Coherence
For many people it doesn’t take that much rational coordination to sustain a viable philosophy of life. Such a system can be sufficiently developed and maintained using a limited number of relatively self-evident platitudes and general social norms, loosely assembled and supported by one’s peer group. Interestingly, all that is needed is the illusion of […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Psychological Literacy, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry, Spirituality and Philosophy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »
Inter-Spirituality Issues
I read a column by Eileen Flynn recently about the problem of interspirituality. A recent book by Stephen Prothero, God is Not One, challenges the idea of unity in religion, and of course he’s right on one level, but mistaken on another level. It has to do with levels of abstraction, essence. And what is […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Spirituality and Philosophy | 2 Comments »
Involuntary Hospitalization, Inadequate Funding for the Severely Mentally Ill
In the early 1970s a major shift occurred politically regarding the status of the acute and chronically severely mentally ill—especially those with active uncontrolled schizophrenia or active bipolar illness. Many were responding to the medications they were given in the hospital, becoming more stable, so it seemed that it was unnecessary to keep them in […]
Posted in Current Events | No Comments »
Scroog-enomics: A Book Review
Joel Waldfogel recently published a little book titled Scroogenomics: why you shouldn’t buy presents for the holidays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2009). The author presents results of his research showing what I’ve become aware of for years: Folks frequently get gifts that they don’t care for that much. The author finally suggests, why don’t […]
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What Should Young People Be Learning
In the June 7, 2010 issue of the New Yorker on page 21 there is an article about whether college is really cost effective. My attention was caught by the statement that skills appropriate to the workplace include the ability to “resolve conflict and negotiate,” “cooperate with others,” and “listen actively.” What strikes me here […]
Posted in Current Events, Psychological Literacy | No Comments »
An Ethical Will (Part 1)
I brought up the idea of the ethical will with my son and we were wondering together what kind of words, what heritage, did we wish to impart to his kids, my grandkids, others. (Whoa! as of today, over 100,000 hits!) The ethical will is an old Jewish tradition in which we write a letter […]
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On Hypocrisy and Duplicity
I was reading a humor book in which one of the themes is the two-column list of what “he said” and what he really thought but would not say—or how that phrase might be covering a more mundane or less favorable reality. There are other lists of she said and what she meant; or what […]
Posted in Psychological Literacy | No Comments »
Psychological Literacy: Further Comments
In the June 7, 2010 issue of the New Yorker on page 21 there is an article about whether college is really cost-effective. My attention was caught by the statement that skills appropriate to the workplace include the ability to “resolve conflict and negotiate,” “cooperate with others,” and “listen actively.” What strikes me here is […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Psychological Literacy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »