Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
April, 2011
Exploring More Paradigm Shifts
Reading some Whitehead and other philosophies, I’m impressed again with how the paradigms are changing in some ways I didn’t talk about previously. We learn, but in contrast to the general tone or world-view in the past, we learn also that the learning is un-ending. There is almost nothing of significance that is learned definitively. […]
Posted in Current Events, Spirituality and Philosophy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »
What Keeps Me Going:
First thing is singing, often an improvised marching tune, or anything. It might be a simple note that I begin to vary and watch what begins to come. The notes are then amplified into a basic tune. Be-boo-bop, no particular words. Occasionally I might insert the words to a spiritual chant, such as Om Namah […]
Posted in Autobiographical, My Favorite Things, Spirituality and Philosophy | No Comments »
Role Dynamics: A User-Friendly Language
One of the challenges today, it seems to me, is to bring practical psychology into the mainstream. I think one of the factors inhibiting this integration is the fact that much of psychology for 40 or more years was “tainted” by psychoanalytic jargon, which has a unfortunate tendency to pathologize—that is, to make ordinary behavior […]
Posted in Psychodrama, Psychological Literacy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »
Envisioning Cultural Trends
This is only the beginning of a century in which people will begin to expand and deepen their identities manifold. We have become aware of the vastness of the cosmos, the depth of time (not thousands, but billions of years!), the complexity of nature, the depth and complexity and frontiers of mind (and unconscious mental […]
Posted in Current Events, History, Spirituality and Philosophy | 1 Comment »
Passover Reflections
My Jewish heritage comes up at this time of year as people wish me a happy Passover. It’s awkward, because although I’ve enjoyed elements of the culture—jokes, history, some philosophy, cultural sociology—I am not affiliated with the religion per se. I’m more like the philosopher Spinoza (who actually was excommunicated by his congregation in Amsterdam […]
Posted in Autobiographical, Follies | 1 Comment »
Action in Education, Psychotherapy, and Life
The emphasis here is on physical enactment, direct encounter, as a way of being more involved than just talking about a topic. Admittedly, talking about is better than stifling, avoiding talking, avoiding being conscious at all. But action extends the process, makes it more holistic. One feels oneself more present and involved. Dr. Jacob L. […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Psychodrama, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry | No Comments »
My Angle on God (Part 2)
This evocative phrase occurred to me last night, following some reading about the mid-Renaissance German mystic, Jacob Boehme. It’s a playful turn of phrase that stands in contrast to the idea that there is only one right way to understand the Divine—i.e., orthodoxy. Can people develop their own take, their own interpretation, aside from that […]
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My Angle on God (Part 1)
I assume, first, that there are innumerable ways to apprehend the Greater Wholeness of Being, the Everything that Includes the Dimensions of Mind and Realms-as-yet-Inconceivable, and That Which No Mind Can Begin to Imagine. There are bunch of other words or phrases that could be used. Second, I grant myself a unique viewpoint that reflects […]
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Confabulations 4: Unwrapping Reality in a Different Way
Let’s Get Started: Can you do that? I mean, unwrap reality? At all? Much less differently? The answer is why not? It’s sort of like unfolding an origami cootie-catcher in 6-dimensional space. You can then glimpse it—reality, that is—from different angles. For example, begin with, say, that star over there. Not that, that’s a floater […]
Tags: Confabulations
Posted in Foolin Around | No Comments »
Idiosyncratic Mind
Idiosyncrasy is the quality of being one-of-a-kind. In spite of many institutions in the 20th century—school, business, church—treating us as if we were interchangeable units in a big machine, in fact we are quite unique. In this present century we’re only beginning to catch up to the awareness that, first, everything is far more complex […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Play and Spontaneity, Spirituality and Philosophy | No Comments »