Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
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 […]
Posted in Autobiographical, Spirituality and Philosophy | No Comments
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 […]
Posted in Foolin Around | No Comments
Mandalas 2007
For those of you who enjoy mandalas or who have seen my preliminary mandala coloring book, here are some others I’ve done this year. Click here to read about the meanings of my mandalas. Here are a few of my mandalas drawn in 2007. See other pages for more drawings: Cartoons 2 Cartoons 3 Cartoons 4
Posted in Art (Mandalas, Doodles, Scripts) | 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
Psychiatric Practice: Not What It Was
A colleague recently asked me why I was not still in practice. I felt awkward, because if I kept up with the news, I could be just as good a clinician as I ever was—and my wife said she thought I was pretty good—as have some colleagues, etc. But the field has changed! In the […]
Posted in Autobiographical, Psychological Literacy, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry | 1 Comment
Evolving Consciousness Through Drama
One set of tools for evolving consciousness involves the integration of elements of drama—not the kind where people memorize lines written by someone else and repeatedly rehearse those lines and scenes—that’s what has come to dominate theatre arts, alas—but rather improvisational and interactive types of drama. I think that the unfolding field of applied theatre […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Play and Spontaneity, Psychodrama | No Comments
Humans and Machines
I want to consider the idea of humans and machines: I don’t want to be too quick to dismiss the value of machines—they are tools that extend human potentials. That in many ways our society is infused with machines, computers, robots, etc. is not the problem—nor that it is likely to become more so. The […]
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Forms of Foolishness and How to Resist Them
The point of this series is that knowing about the various types snares and traps that lure us into foolishness may help us to resist or minimize their impact. What I mean by “foolishness” is sort of compounding of ignorance and pride. The ignorance is morally neutral: There are innumerable items we don’t know—and a […]
Posted in Follies, Psychological Literacy, Wisdom-ing | No Comments
Illusions and Foolishness I
A few months ago my son David and I were chatting about ways people lapse into illusion and foolishness, and he suggested that I write it up as a book, or at least put it on the blog. I came up with several score items—well, actually I blurted out, “There are a hundred of them!” […]
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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 […]
Posted in Essays and Papers, Play and Spontaneity, Psychological Literacy | No Comments