Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
How It Looks from Here
Zordak speaking: So here’s the deal. Pretend that when you talk this way you don’t mean it, you’re just foolin’ around. Okay. So somewhere on the order of 24,000 sprite-souls have been incarnated onto your planet because Earth-people really need them. The species has become caught up in illusion. We’ve been sending liberatory sprite-souls for […]
Posted in Foolin Around, Spirituality and Philosophy, Zordak's Journal | No Comments
Psychiatric “Diagnoses”
Several months ago I sent this to the American Psychiatric Association’s committee in charge of making a new Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM-5). I wrote: Though I’m retired from active practice in psychiatry now, I get questions from neighbors; and also I teach and consult with various mental health professionals in training. My impression is […]
Posted in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry | No Comments
Standing in the Fire
In the Fall, 2011 issue of Dramascope: the e-newsletter of the National Association for Drama Therapy, a mini-essay of mine was published and I thought I’d put it up here, too. What’s said here applies also to the challenge of leading a psychodrama. Essentially (as an abstract of what I say), I note that one […]
Posted in Psychodrama, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry | No Comments
Folly in Culture
A recent article in Wired magazine addressed tendencies in the field of medicine to perhaps over-reach itself, and to not-entirely-rationally support whatever seems new or fashionable. As an amateur historian of medicine, I found this wonderful. Several articles from many sources have explored the tenuous nature of modern medical "knowledge." However, lest we get all […]
Posted in Follies, History, Wisdom-ing | No Comments
Check Your Check Lists
In preparation for one of our projects this last year—in this case, the visit of both of my adult kids and their families, I remembered this joke: Moses is at the Red Sea shore. Behind him are 10,000 of the Hebrew liberated slaves, plus their families and what little they can carry with them. They […]
Posted in Foolin Around | No Comments
Popularity
Three items on this blog: First, about popularity. When I grew up in the olden days, in the early 1950s, I had a sense that I should become popular. Something about making friends. I read books about it. “How to Make Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie was a key—but it addressed salesmanship, and […]
Posted in Autobiographical | No Comments
If I Was Smarter…
In the olden days, when I was young…. Well, now that I think of it, when I was middle-aged, too. Indeed, a couple of years ago I still was making mistakes that I don’t make as often nowadays. Am I getting smarter? And if I would have been smarter, what would have come of it? […]
Posted in Foolin Around, Whassup?, Wisdom-ing | No Comments
Tell Me About Your Play Experiences
I’m preparing a revised edition of my Art of Play book. So, trying to update my background material, this is an open letter to those interested in the phenomenon of play, and mainly more improvisational and imaginative types, pretend play, etc. I’m interested to hear about a number of things: – people doing research […]
Posted in Play and Spontaneity | No Comments
Bibliodrama and Noah’s Ark
I just found out about a story, “In the Shadow of the Ark,” by Anne Prevoost, who explores the Noah story from the viewpoint of those not chosen to be saved. It strikes me as a good warm-up to a group process of Bibliodrama, exploring through improvised enactment the story, and adding comments by those […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments
Holiday Greetings from Another World
My flying-saucer-little-green-man friend — "Zordak" by name— sent this in response to my trying to explain to him our Holiday season. “He” (actually, gender in his world is not so easily characterized, but we’ll use that pronoun rather than go into it) wanted to share in the spirit, and he sent this little message: Actually, […]
Posted in Foolin Around, My Favorite Things, Zordak's Journal | No Comments