Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
April, 2014
A Theological Confabulation
I am a contemplateur, an affected term I made up to make my lazy thinking about stuff sound fancy. It’s a way to play. So I’ve been thinking about the Big Whats-it-all-about, beyond space, time, matter, and energy. I view these categories as fabulous in their infinitude, but still I have a hunch that […]
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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. […]
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A Kaddish Contemplation
Kaddish is the name of the Jewish prayer said for those in mourning for those who have passed on, also known as a prayer for the dead. But in fact it’s not a prayer for the person who has died, it’s a prayer to re-align the living. Kaddish re-focuses the one praying; its words implicitly […]
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Types of Knowledge
There is a spectrum here. There’s stuff I know pretty much with certainty and then stuff I pretty well know but I could tolerate being corrected. Then there’s stuff I sort of know and I can go back and retrieve other memories and shore this up. Sort of “yes, that was when… and the book […]
Posted in Follies, Psychology, Spirituality and Philosophy | No Comments »
Laziness versus Death Wish
Freud posited a death wish, Thanatos (in Latin)—what word did he use? These other instincts beyond sexuality were needed as the theory grew: It wasn’t possible to explain everything in terms of the sex drive. But I think these terms are misleading, even were we to accept that there’s more than a germ of truth […]
Posted in Autobiographical, Follies, Psychology | No Comments »
Challenging Psychiatry
I have been re-thinking my profession in preparation for giving a talk on the changes it has gone through over the last fifty to a hundred years. The title is “We Don’t Do That Anymore,” but alas, we do, at least some things that maybe we shouldn’t. I’ll post it on my website when I’ve […]
Posted in Current Events, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry | No Comments »
Vitality Enhancement
This is my term for a very valid activity. This phrase is needed. Of course it’s also recreation, but that category has been co-opted by two activities that may offer illusory gratifications. One is competition, which often is so focused on the winning that the fun is lost. The second gratification is vicarious. There’s a […]
Posted in Play and Spontaneity, Psychological Literacy, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry, Wisdom-ing | No Comments »
Consciousness-Raising
(This was written more than a week ago, too) The first point is to recognize that people can participate in raising their own consciousness. This is not a small step. Most folks take their own view of life, the world, people, themselves, pretty much for granted. It is what it seems to be. But of […]
Posted in Follies, Mind-Spectrums, Psychological Literacy, Spirituality and Philosophy | No Comments »
Inanition
This word is defined as a loss of vitality. It can be from malnutrition, perhaps mixed with physical exhaustion, but the term also speaks to a state of vitality—or the loss of momentum thereof—of an individual, group, organization, or even political dynasty. The word seems fit as I notice trends in culture, certain fashions dying […]
Posted in Autobiographical, Essays and Papers, Spirituality and Philosophy, Whassup? | No Comments »