Reflections on psychoanalysis, society, relationships, and everyday life
225 essays by Alan Karbelnig, PhD, originally published from 2014 through 2021.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 Glendale, California Sifting Through Lies Reviewing events of the past few days, I am reminded of the near impossibility of finding the TRUTH about any particular topic. Here are three examples from this week alone:
Friday, May 21, 2021 Eugene, Oregon Why Read Saul Bellow? Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Before recommending immersion into Mr. Bellow's brilliant fictional worlds, I wish to apologize for disappearing the last few months. I
Saturday, March 27, 2021 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Must You Feel Empty and Lonely? Usually inspired by J. Krishnamurti's words, these excerpts from his teachings left me troubled: People running away from emptiness, incompleteness, lonelines
Sunday, March 21, 2021 Glendale, California Atlanta Shooting: The Rush to Oversimplify My Dearest Readers, [Before delving into a possibly life-endangering topic, I want to shamelessly self-promote a newsletter. It costs all of $70 per year
Sunday, February 7, 2021 Glendale, CA On Being a Zen Retriever Have you ever noticed, as I do, how much of the day you spend, well, taking things out and putting them away? When I write, usually in my small backyard, I retrieve a laptop, no
Joshua Tree National Park, California Friday, January 8, 2021 Defecation, Fornication, and Dissociation A most troubling triad, I know, but here's the point: Every single day, unless you're eating extremely poorly, you poop at some point. I
Joshua Tree National Park, California Tuesday, January 5, 2021 Meditating One-Year In: Five Reflections Without conscious plan or intent, I began meditating, on a daily basis, one year ago. I'd learned the classic Zen method of sitting medi
Friday, November 27, 2020 Arbor Heights, Seattle, Washington Achieving the fearful state of "caught up" on the Blackest of Black Fridays, mid-Covid, after illegally traveling by airplane, overeating, over-drinking and, worst of all, over-th
Arbor Heights, Seattle, Washington Wednesday, November 25, 2020 An Ode to Dr. Larry Brooks Fractal geometry, way beyond my comprehension, refers to how a part of an object mirrors its larger version. In essence, then, a leaf predicts the fo
Saturday, October 24, 2020 Glendale, California "The Whole World Is Watching" Anti-Vietnam War demonstrators chanted this phrase, as relevant now as in 1968, while being beaten and arrested by police outside the Chicago Democratic National
Wednesday, October 14, 2020 Glendale, California Covid and Complexity We human beings struggle mightily with the endless complexity of our world. It arouses anxiety. To cope, we tend to categorize, i.e. Democrat versus Republican, Black ver
Saturday, September 26, 2020 Cayucos, California Enjoy the Pandemic! If you've read past the title, then perhaps you can stomach the paradoxical, absurd, even counter-intuitive idea of enjoying this pandemic before it ends. It will be over
Sunday, September 20, 2020 Glendale, California How Beliefs Divide You cannot not have beliefs. And, yet, your beliefs are necessarily divisive. How? If you're a staunch Democrat, then you've created a projected negative "other," the Republ
Sunday, September 13, 2020 Glendale, California Speak Truth to Your Friends This morning's Washington Post featured a disturbing story: Woodward's Rage is a Damning Account of Trump's Cowering Sycophants and Enablers The article brings to m
Sunday, September 6, 2020 Cambridge, Maryland Stung by Psychoanalytic Politics Ready yourself for some aggressive but hopefully entertaining and informative venting. I write to let go of anger, hurt, pain at a recent slate of manuscript rej
Saturday, August 29, 2020 Nashville, Tennessee Nationalism and the Internment of Chinese Uighurs Day four of this car-cruising, cowering, cross-country-Covid trip brings renewed appreciation for geography. Ft. Smith, Arkansas, is right over
Friday, August 28, 2020 Fort Smith, Arkansas Flatlands of Further Propaganda Followed by Hope However tempting to describe the terrain moving from desert to flat, flat, flat, Trump’s speech last night practically shouts for more Goebbels qu
Thursday, August 27, 2020 Amarillo, Texas Trump, Trucks, the Southwest and RNC Propaganda The dreaded five-day journey took a positive turn this morning—day two—likely enlivened by the gorgeous geography. Having flown over these states for
Wednesday, August 26, 2020 Flagstaff, Arizona Moods of the East (Arizona) Euphoria Ending 8-hour drive, seeing statuesque conifers, being at 7000 feet altitude, viewing few hotel guests, imagining an 16-month-old child awaiting a visit, bre
Sunday, August 23, 2020 Glendale, California A Journey to the East (Of America) Some readers ask: What exactly is the purpose of this blog? I know not. Obviously, and given its title of Psychoanalyzing Life , much of the posts involve psych
Saturday, August 15, 2020 Glendale, California Tyranny, Piracy, Opportunity Tyranny reigns when governments assume excessive power. Consider these recent examples: China's president-for-life, Xi Jinping, became an autocrat when he accepted
Sunday, August 9, 2020 Glendale, California Perversely Avoiding The Present Two recent experiences bring the absolutely unequivocal ways in which we perversely avoid the present to my attention: First, and a great example of the unconscious
Saturday, July 11, 2020 Glendale, California Donald's Detumescence: Narcissism's Scary End-Stage Of course you thought detumescence refers to erections. And, if so, you are partially correct. Merriam-Webster's definition is: Subsidence or d
Friday, June 19, 2020 Pasadena, California Donald Trump's Way Out People with an excess of narcissistic personality traits tend to blame others for their faults, difficulties, failures, setbacks. They project whatever normal vulnerabilities
Sunday, June 14, 2020 Glendale, California Covid-19 and the Problem of Aloneness Is the Covid-19 virus evil? No. It's trying to survive, just like we are. It competes for resources found in living animals. Existing in the vague zone between
Saturday, May 9, 2020 Glendale, California The Perfect Paradox of Identity On the one hand, most psychologists and philosophers agree that, to function effectively as an adult, you need a cohesive sense of identity. The narrative should be
Wednesday, April 29, 2020 Glendale, California Donald Trump Destroys Cliche of the Used Car Salesman What sadness one feels at Donald Trump's ending the halcyon days of comparing every falsifier, manipulator, liar, con-man, perjurer, or fab
Tuesday, April 28, 2020 Pasadena, California Melting Materialism In one of his more brilliant ideas, Swiss psychoanalyst Karl Jung thought that interests find US . We don't find them . In other words, you don't wake up one day and decide, h
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Pasadena, California Covid Panic and Infantile Omnipotence Although differing psychoanalytic schools foolishly quarrel with one another, they universally agree on at least one idea: Infantile omnipotence. The conce
Wednesday, April 15, 2020 Glendale, California Lessons in Projection: Trump's Definitive Gift Decades from now, the debate over the efficacy of Donald Trump's presidency will linger. Scholars will disagree and discuss. Meanwhile, the countr
Sunday, April 12, 2020 Glendale, California Covid: Living in the Pre-Industrial Age Probably not the best time for a history lesson, but this bizarre period of "sheltering in place" brings the industrial revolution to mind. Until then, most
Sunday, April 5, 2020 Pasadena, California Covid: Lessons in Community Earlier, I suggested an attack by an alien species would immediately bring us to acknowledge we are, in truth: ONE BIG FAMILY. The Covid-19 pandemic may be just the tick
Wednesday, March 18, 2020 Pasadena, California The Next Pandemic: Loneliness and Conflict The next month should provide all of us with more information about the nature of the Covid-19 pandemic. We will learn the actual severity of the viru
Sunday, March 15, 2020 Glendale, California Love in the Time of Covid Returning last Wednesday from a two-week trip to Asia, I encountered the slightest stigma related to Covid-19. The incidents, barely worth mentioning considering some hav
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 Chiang Rei, Thailand Watching the Ego Flicker Validating either the mystical, the unconscious, or both, I began engaging in two new daily behaviors starting on: One-One-Twenty-Twenty. They began out of nowhere. I res
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 Bangkok, Thailand Kafka in Thailand If Franz Kafka were still alive, he would love one specific absurdity about modern Thailand. On the one hand, the country, technically a monarch run by its military since 2014, is
Sunday, March 1, 2020 Krabi, Thailand Contrarian Contagion Vacation! Having been invited to lecture in Shenzhen, China on Feb 29, 2020, I decided to add trips to Singapore and Thailand—both locations I've never visited. Then, perhaps only a
Singapore Thursday, February 27, 2020 Covid-19 and the Concept of Truth The threat of the cloud-like coronavirus-19, here and now in Singapore, offers a unique opportunity for studying truth itself. Therefore, the angle of this post is on t
January 31, 2020 Washington, DC Lies From Lying Lawyers Hornets Nest Just blocks away, Senators debate whether or not to hear witnesses in the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. The trial reminds me one of my all time favorite ps
Monday, January 27, 2020 Pasadena, California Kobe Bryant and the Unfolding of Identity Less than 24 hours ago, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Our identities immediatel
Thursday, January 23, 2020 Pasadena, California Distraction from Distraction: More on Horror Vacui In response to an earlier posting on our terror of aloneness, one of my two Darling Davids sent me a T.S. Eliot poem. The poem, and additiona
Pasadena, California Tuesday, January 14, 2020 Running from the Horror Vacui Introduced by scholars writing about the visual arts, the phrase, horror vacui , Latin for fear of empty space , partially explains our struggles with compulsions.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020 Glendale, California Life in 2020: A Few John Updike Phrases to Wake You Up! Fending off powerful superego demands for achievement, I lingered in bed until an unbelievable 11am this morning, reading a bit more of
Sunday, December 29, 2019 Palm Springs, California Are We Humans a Virus to the Earth? After several days of escaping the city into the wilderness of the Pacific Crest Trail, a foolish walk along Palm Canyon Drive—Palm Springs' main shoppin
Thursday, December 26, 2019 Julian, California A Poem For Daughters Escaped to east San Diego County to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail, only to become snowed in today inside an AirBnb outside Julian, California. Looks like left over C
December 24, 2019 Pasadena, California Language is for Lying, Impeachment, and Russia The intense media coverage of last week's impeachment hearings, not to mention the massive controversy since then, brings one of Friedrich Nietzsche's mos
Friday, December 6, 2019 Cayucos, California Why Take A Magical, Mystery Tour? Many reasons exist, but listening to old Baba Ram Dass lectures might push the idea of the journey to the front of your mind. Formally named as Richard Alpert, h
Sunday, November 17, 2019 Glendale, California Seeking Truth: The Antidote to Message Manipulation Hardly an astonishing realization, the communication of TRUTH rarely exists. Instead, individuals, corporations, governments, and media commu
Sunday, November 3, 2019 Glendale, California Stare Into Mystery - Part I Whatever area of study you pursue, you eventually reach a point where certainty ends and mystery begins. In truth, mystery reigns. I consider but one of the common ac
Sunday, October 27, 2019 Glendale, California When Challenged, Kill A Terrorist I escape from morbidly ruminating about Jill's stage 4 lung cancer and its implications regarding mortality, vulnerability, and the brevity of our journey throu
Thursday, October 24, 2019 Pasadena, California Emotional Shock: The First Two Months The most shocking thing about a tragic situation is the way life seems to go on, said my cherished friend and colleague, Helen. She's well aware of Jill's
Glendale, California Monday, October 7, 2019 Resilience Is The Wrong Word The word, resilience — all the rage in the mental health world—is actually incorrect, erroneous, misleading, even dangerous. According to the Oxford dictionary, resil
Friday, September 27, 2019 Cayucos, California Emotional Shock: The First Week Last week, I posted about a friend's frightening medical situation. My intention was to educate readers facing such situations in themselves or in those close to
Sunday, September 22, 2019 Glendale, California Emotional Shock: The First Two Days Perhaps the strangest feature of living as a human being, we basically create a fiction we call "our lives" or "our inner world." It seems real to us. Carl
Pasadena, California Friday, September 20, 2019 When Unconscious Demons Possess a Business: A Case Study Echoing my recent post discussing an employee's abrupt resignation, I vividly describe how a powerful unconscious dynamic possessed a l
Sunday, September 7, 2019 Seattle, California Preventing Polarization: A Civil Critique of Jordan Peterson In 2018, the New York Times proclaimed Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist and philosopher, the most influential public intellec
Thursday, September 5, 2019 Seattle, Washington Dissecting White Male Privilege As a white, privileged male myself, I write, with trepidation, to explore the meaning of this designation. Although intended to bring attention to an unfairly a
Sunday, September 1, 2019 Glendale, California Psychoanalyzing An Employee's Betrayal The most painful of interpersonal trauma—betrayal by spouses, relatives, or friends often leads people to seek help from psychoanalysts like me. Of all pe
Glendale, California Sunday, August 25, 2019 Converting from Consumer To Citizen Digital marketing experts estimate that we Americans are exposed to some 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. Each and every day! What do these advertiseme
Cayucos, California Friday, August 16, 2019 Psychotherapists' Struggles with Intimacy Representing perhaps the height of irony, it turns out that individuals with schizoid traits seem particularly drawn to work in the profession of psychoth
Wednesday, August 7, 2019 London, England (Heathrow Hell) The Simple Evil of Nuclear Power Having devoted the last few posts to complexity, I break the trend by paradoxically advocating for simplicity—in one area only—nuclear power. I do so
Tuesday, August 6, 2019 Edinburgh, Scotland From UK to US: One Over-Simplicity to Another Continuing my recent ranting on the problem of over-simplification, two immediate examples scream out as I prepare to return to the US from the UK. Re
Monday, August 5, 2019 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Finding Unity in Catastrophe An attack by aliens might break our propensity to gather into tribes. This tendency, baked into our genes, causes us to gather into groups. We then develop us versu
Friday, July 26, 2019 London, England Why Does Celebrity Trump Complexity in Leadership? As I taxied into downtown London for the biannual meeting of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA), Boris Johnson, the new Prime Minister
Monday, July 22, 2019 Pasadena, California Dissolving Tension between You and the Group Firstly, you can't completely dissolve it because, well, it is you. You cannot completely divorce yourself from whichever group to which you belong. For
Sunday, July 14, 2019 Glendale, California The Wisdom of Doubt Viewing our era as one of extreme polarization has become cliche. Nonetheless, it remains an accurate characterization. For example, and just last week, I discussed the ideas of
Friday, July 5, 2019 Elkton, Virginia Baby Buddhism Nearing the end of a week in a small house shared with an eight-week old infant, I offer reflections on infancy, living-in-the-moment, and Buddhism. The rented house sits in the middle of
Thursday, July 4, 2019 Elkton, Virginia The Malignant Narcissism of Independence Day 2019 With the ridiculous, TV-president's, reality July 4th rally about to begin, the irony of the actual meaning of independence day explodes forth like fi
Sunday, June 30, 2019 Elkton, Virginia Critical Theory Versus Critical Thinking Several years ago, a student at Occidental College told me his major was: Critical Theory What? I'd never heard of it. I looked into critical theory, motivated
Sunday, June 23, 2019 Glendale, California Why Governments Need Psychoanalysts Not exactly the kind the fictional character Deanna Troi on Star Trek Next Generation, who counseled commanders on the USS Enterprise, provides, the US governmen
How Virtues Become Vices Aristotle, the Greek dude you learned about in school, lived from 384 to 322 BCE. He wrote powerfully about perennial wisdom called virtue ethics . The idea serves as the foundation for numerous self-help, psycholog
Ever since Adam Smith published his famous The Wealth of Nations in 1776, economists have argued about markets. Should they be given total freedom? Or should they be constrained by governments? Some, like Smith himself, believed an "invisib
Entering my fortieth year of practicing depth psychology, I find it painfully ironic to finally believe in, and surrender to, the dominance of the unconscious mind. How did I miss that? Arrogance? Foolishness? In any event, I write with utt
Can a mid-life crisis be sold? Yes! During mid-April, I sold an awesome, way-cool sports car I owned for 15 years. I won't disclose the make or model, due to shame. However, I bet what you are imagining right this second is EXACTLY IT. Yes!
It took the Vietnam War to barely wake up the globe to the reality of post-traumatic stress conditions—known most commonly as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Until the 1960s, sadly, traumatized soldiers, and others exposed to potenti
This morning's election of Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian with no political experience, brings the problem of critical thinking to—pun intended—a critical level. As if the election of Donald Trump were not enough to get our attention. Mr. Z
Carl Jung famously wrote something like: It's not that a person has an idea. The idea has the person. What did he mean? Jung meant we were born into a culture which programs so much of what we think of as uniquely us. We live out scripts, w
Saturday, April 6, 2019 Glendale, California How You Avoid the Moment — Part II — Terror of Uncertainty I briefly add two significant concepts to my last post regarding avoiding the moment. Yes, you avoid it. So do I. If you wish to review
Sunday, March 31, 2019 Glendale, California How You Avoid The Moment -- Part I Striving to live as much "in the moment" is one of the rare truths on which philosophers and theologians agree. We humans tend to look towards the past with joy
Sunday, March 24, 2019 Glendale, California Stray Thoughts On Freedom Near the end of Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, she references a lecture she heard at Oxford regarding Isaiah Berlin's philosophy. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy always c
Sunday, March 24, 2019 Glendale, California Medical Insurance Insanity: Transparency Before Reform Before contemplating health care reform, our society must begin with transparency regarding health care costs. Calls for Medicare-For-All, si
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 Patagonia, Chile Chasms Following Trauma Bolstered by having published six scholarly psychoanalytic articles thus far, I explore an idea central to another manuscript. It has been rejected by multiple journ
Puerto Natales, Patagonia Region, Chile Friday, February 22, 2019 The Dangers Of American Capitalist Imperialism If freaked out following open heart surgery, I heartily recommend, pun intended, a quick run away to Patagonia, Chile. I
Pasadena, California Friday, February 15, 2019 Opioid Hysteria: Rampant Reductionism and Industrialization Even before my recent encounter with severe post-surgical pain, I considered the "opioid epidemic" a form of cultural hysteria
Thursday, January 17, 2019 Las Vegas, Nevada Understanding Depression Following Cardiac Surgery Freshly recovering from my second aortic valve replacement surgery in eleven years, I feel uniquely qualified to reflect on the the "depr
Thursday, January 10, 2019 Glendale, California How To Stop Being A Fake The first step, naturally, is surrender to the simulation, the phoniness, the ever-present influence of the culture upon us. It cannot be entirely avoided. Some
Friday, December 21, 2018 Los Angeles, California USC/Keck Hospital Post-Cardiac Hospitalization: Could CNN Be The Worst Of It? Nearing discharge six days after my second aortic valve replacement in 11 years, many horrible experience
Thursday, November 29, 2018 On Amtrak Train En Route To San Luis Obispo Truth Decay II: Ignoring A Journalist's Murder And Climate Change Patients entering psychoanalysts' offices face a basic challenge: Can they handle the truth? Re
Thursday, November 22, 2018 Glendale, California The Mafia-Like Nature of American Health Insurance Most of us understand the deeply fractured status of the American health insurance system. We all have our personal stories. The medi
Sunday, November 18, 2018 Glendale, California Even More Reasons to Hate Facebook Before ragging on FB still more, I must confess. I have an FB account myself but use it only to post this blog. Like any insecure writer, I want to spread my
Friday, November 15, 2018 Pasadena, California How Narcissists Get Depressed: The Case of Donald J Trump Individuals with malignant narcissism, like Donald, have specific vulnerabilities. Deep within themselves, they feel terrifically insec
Sunday, November 11, 2018 Glendale, California Working, Purchasing, and Soul Murdering During the 1960s, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse proposed a worrisome cultural trend just as relevant now as then: We Americans are exposed to as
Sunday, November 4, 2018 Glendale, California The Social Prison In Which We Live Applying his unique historical perspective to studying how nations punish criminals, Michel Foucault believes "modern" prisons strive for three goals: S
Sunday, October 28, 2018 Glendale, California Observing Post-Humanism: The Modern Medical Laboratory Just last Friday, I went to the LabCorp (sounds like E-Corp) for a routine blood test. I had an updated order from my MD. I walked u
Sunday, October 28, 2018 Glendale, California Truth Decay I: The Murder of Jamal Khashoggi The topic, or question, driving this post is immense and crucially important: How to deal with the erosion of truth, with truth-decay? Several
Sunday, October 14, 2018 Glendale, California More Proof You Live in a Dream So many proofs exist! Ah, then, where to start? Let's start with your name, and the names of those you love. You didn't choose yours. They didn't choose theirs. Un
Tuesday, October 9, 2018 Pasadena, California Catastrophic Denial: Ignoring Climate Change Yesterday, the United Nations released a report proclaiming the need for urgent international action to prevent catastrophic changes in the wo
Friday, September 28, 2018 Pasadena, California Mr. Kavanaugh, Dr. Ford, and the Death of Dialogue Fears of a constitutional crisis, worries the Supreme Court will lean too far right, and concerns over the plight of sexual assault victims d
Friday, September 7, 2018 Cape Neddick, Maine Defensiveness As Vulnerability: Reacting to the Anonymous NYT Op-Ed Article Once again displaying his unwitting genius for exemplifying psychoanalytic ideas, Donald Trump's reaction to ye
Monday, September 3, 2018 Nova Scotia, Canada America's Shame and Canada's Gain Traveling through Canada for the first time in decades, I met a lovely lawyer, named Sanjay, on the train to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We had dinner last nig
Glendale, California Sunday, August 26, 2018 Stay Out of My Mind! Reflections on Psycho-Invasions Call me sensitive, but I can no longer take mental invasion. I see it everywhere. You probably do too. Consider these immediate
Sunday, August 19, 2018 Glendale, California Abortion: The Perfect Ethical Dilemma The stranded lifeboat analogy, philosophers say, represents the perfect image for studying ethics. You've heard of it. Seven people float about on a l
Glendale, California Sunday, August 12, 2018 Why Is "Mental Health" A Stupid Phrase? The phrase, mental health , is stupid. It accurately describes neither mental nor health well, and here are a few key reasons the phrase fails miser
Glendale, California Sunday, July 29, 2018 Our Television President; Our Television People The press conference after Trump's Helsinki meeting with Putin offers tremendous insights into the myopic, television world in which we live. Focusin
Tuesday, July 17, 2018 Pasadena, California Trump, Putin, and Malignant Narcissism Yesterday's disastrous Helsinki summit displays Trump's greatest gift to the world: A terrific, global demonstration of what severe narcissistic perso
Seattle, Washington Saturday, July 7, 2018 Frantic Emailing and Texting: Illusory Anxiety Relief If you find yourself like me—compelled to check texts and emails at regular intervals to ensure sanity—consider the complete absurdity o
Sunday, July 1, 2018 Glendale, California Bullshitters, Liars, and Donald Trump Did you know a serious philosopher writes about bullshit? It's true. The distinguished moral philosopher, Harry Frankfurt, an emeritus professor at Princ
Glendale, California Sunday, June 24, 2018 Do You Understand You're Dreaming? (Inspired by David Foster Wallace and Lao Tzu) As the typical Sunday afternoon makes its slow transition to Monday, you might feel a tinge of sadness. I us
Glendale, California Saturday, June 23, 2018 America's Gulag for Children The term, Gulag, made famous by Russian novelist Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's novel, The Gulag Archipelago, refers to the Soviet forced labor camp sys
Pasadena, California Tuesday, June 19, 2018 Loneliness and Freedom Regardless of why their seek their help, psychoanalysts strive to increase their patients' freedom. How? By confronting avoidance, uncovering unconscious dynam
Sitka, Alaska Sunday, June 10, 2018 Why Keep Church and State Separate? What most people call "mental health" may be simply viewed as maturity or, alternatively, integration or effective living . Maturity means knowing how to behave
Friday, June 8, 2018 Sitka, Alaska Tracking Troubling Threats Against Democracy Frightening news warning of democracy's collapse appears with unprecedented rapidity. One just need read news headlines any time to find ample evidence.
Glendale, California Sunday, June 3, 2018 Finding Eternity In The Moment After Albert Einstein introduced special relativity in 1905, humans became more freaky about time than ever. His famous paper, entitled On the electrodyn
Glendale, California Saturday, June 2, 2018 Are You Projecting On Your Dog? Doesn't Lucy, my three-year-old Vizsla, look kind, aware, intelligent, even knowledgeable? Can you see the eagerness in her eyes, the care, the
Sunday, May 27, 2018 Glendale, California Dangers of CBT, DBT, TFT, EFT, and Other TLA Psychotherapies If any of your lovely readers contemplate entering psychotherapy, or are training in the field of clinical psycholog
Tuesday, May 15, 2018 Pasadena, California Identity Politics' Dark Side Movements like feminism, black power, and gay rights have positively changed American culture. They effectively organized people through identifiable traits or b
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 Pasadena, California Finding Liberation in Mystery How can acknowledging the ultimate mystery of the world liberate you? By untying self-constrictive knots, undoing oppressive rules, and dismantling repres
Glendale, California Sunday, May 6, 2018 China's Declining Freedom Recent governmental developments in China send chills up the average Chinese citizen's spine. Ironically, though, these regressive, oppressive changes also shine brig
April 28, 2018 Glendale, California Striking Teachers and Defense Budgets: Why Ignore Americans? In case you've missed it, thousands of teachers have gone on strike in the past few months in West Virginia, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kentuck
Pasadena, California Tuesday, April 18, 2018 Understanding Pathological Liars: The Case of Donald Trump Years before studying clinical psychology ever entered my mind, I heard the phrase "pathological liar." I bet it goes all the way
Sunday, April 1, 2018 Glendale, California Donald Trump's Oedipal Complex Having commented month's ago on Trump's clearly exemplifying a narcissistic personality disorder, I turn now to reviewing his equally-disturbing, and highly ac
March 2-10, 2018 Hanoi/Saigon, Vietnam Luang Prabang, Laos Siem Reap, Cambodia Darkness in SE Asia Reminiscent of union general William Sherman's "scorched earth" march through Georgia in 1864, the US military's bombing of SE
Siem Reap, Cambodia Saturday, March 10, 2018 Me Too—Too Far! My most intense personal experience with the wrong side of the Me Too cultural wave concerns a young professor I met with from 2016-7. I have his express permission
Glendale, California Sunday, February 4, 2018 Alienation I: Self Versus Body What does alienation mean? Being isolated from a group or activity in which one should be involved. In other words, you're split off from yourself in some way, or
Glendale, California Sunday, January 28, 2018 Escaping From Cell Phone Compulsion (Dedicated to HO) Everyone seems to agree we spend way too much time on our mobile phones. No one discusses actual ways to beat the habit. I devote thi
Glendale, California Saturday, January 20, 2018 Your Cell Phone Ain't Smart! And neither is your computer, your iPod, or your smart television. Hate to break it to you... The revelation came to me—perhaps obviously—when I reacted wit
Sunday, January 14, 2018 Glendale, California The Limits of Science Having survived a bacterial infection of the heart followed by open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve and repair an aneurism (in 2008), I appreciate, even need and
Glendale, California Sunday, January 7, 2018 Split the Mind; Split the People We split our minds in the same way societies split themselves. We ingest food from the front, and eliminate it from the back. We humans particularly like t
Glendale, California Saturday, January 6, 2018 Evil Nuances of Media Messaging Major media outlets render finding truth—about facts as truth or as bases for opinions—increasingly difficult. Consider but one small example: When
Washington, DC Tuesday, January 2, 2018 Process Psychology: An Integrated View of Depth Psychotherapy The unfortunately often-warring, disparate practitioners of depth psychotherapy actually share more commonality in models of mind a
Saturday, December 30, 2017 New York, New York Celebrate Your Shimmering Individuality in the New Year! Existence consists of sets of oppositional tensions: Life versus death, health v. sickness and, of course, self v.
Seattle, Washington Sunday, December 24, 2017 Embracing Globalization; Embracing the Human Family Most people equate globalization with American imperialism, and who can blame them? We sell weapons throughout the world. We sel
Wednesday, December 6, 2017 Pasadena, California Do We Take Our American Free Speech for Granted? A Celebration Tempered by Concern Have you ever worried that you take your first amendment rights for granted? Despite their nau
Pasadena, California Monday, November 27, 2017 Triangulation and Space Alienation Achieving world peace requires only one simple event: A global attack by aliens from outer space! Nations as clash-prone as the Russians
November 23, 2017 Glendale, California Mechanizing Clinical Psychology Last August, I spent a tortuous half-a-day completing an application to renew my status as a continuing education (CE) provider for the California Psycholo
Pasadena, California Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Sexual Harassment, Due Process, and the Problem of Sensationalism The incendiary nature of the topic, unaided by my own clumsiness, invited a number of negative responses to two
Pasadena, California Wednesday, November 8, 2017 Mobile Masturbation: The Cell Phone Perversion Intending to provoke, I compare excessive cell phone usage to masturbation. Masturbation is a decent metaphor for withdrawal from
Pasadena, California Thursday, November 2, 2017 The New Puritans Kudos to Cathy Young and her op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times! She courageously stirred political controversy by calling out the extremity of the reaction to recent
Sunday, October 29, 2017 Glendale, California Today's Gulag In North Korea If you want a really depressing week, try finishing Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelgo and Demick's Nothing to Envy in the same week. I don't recommend it
Consent, and the Objectification of Women -- Part II Considerable controversy stirred otherwise calm waters following my last posting. Unfortunately, I learned I hurt one person extremely dear to me; I received a
Glendale, California Saturday, October 21, 2017 Consent, and The Objectification of Women While Harvey Weinstein's obnoxious, infamous behavior still dominates the the media, perhaps we global citizens can benefit from considering th
Sunday, October 15, 2017 Glendale, California Deconstructing Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein sounds like a dog or a pig. According to media accounts, he wielded his immense Hollywood power to manipulate, sexually abuse, even
Glendale, California Sunday, October 8, 2017 The LA Times In Decline Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1960s, I remember the Los Angeles Times as a paragon of modern journalism. It featured Pulitzer prize winning journalists, crack in
Glendale, California Saturday, October 7, 2017 Further Reflections On Las Vegas Shooter Nearly a week has pasted since the Las Vegas shooter, Tim Paddock, ended 58 lives and destroyed hundreds of others at the Route 90 Harvest music
Pasadena, California Thursday, October 5, 2017 Las Vegas Shooter: Psychoanalytic Conjectures Faux* journalists, like Erin Burnett on CNN, dramatically proclaimed Monday night: We just don't know why he did it, we just don't know... P
Glendale, California Sunday, October 1, 2017 Riffing On Subjectivity Many of my patients struggle with the word subjectivity. And who can blame them? It's a tough word. Subjectivity refers to the human subject, the experience of bein
Glendale, California Saturday, September 23, 2017 Trump, the UN, and the Inner/Outer Worlds Trump's behavior at the UN last week compels me to follow up on my last blog. He used the word "sovereign" 21 times in the 42-minute s
Glendale, California Saturday, September 16, 2017 Donald Trump and the Inflamed Inner World What is known as psychopathology can be understood in terms of the degree of separation between internal and external worlds. Oddly, we human
Saturday, September 9, 2017 Stockholm, Sweden The Big Other in Sweden Reviewing one of those typical booklets you get when you check into any hotel, the section entitled Swedish Customs and Swedishness immediately caught my attention
Stockholm, Sweden Tuesday, September 5, 2017 The Three Types of Universal Healthcare Fresh from visiting the disastrous healthcare system in Cuba, and feeling acutely ashamed of the travesty of it in the US, I write to briefly explain three
Tuesday, September 5, 2017 Oslo-Stockholm Train Binding Anxiety on a Train Ride to Stockholm Dominating my earliest memories, a pervasive feeling of anxiety has since haunted me throughout my life. It is a nameless dread. It n
Sunday, Sept 3, 2017 Oslo, Norway Havana v. Oslo, Hysteria v. Obsessiveness, and the Absurdity of Categories Having visited Havana just a few months ago, I find the contrasts between it and Oslo mind-boggling. It brings
Bergen, Norway Friday, September 1, 2017 Wherever You Go, There You Are My eldest daughter, M, says I need to find my audience for this blog. I should have a consistent voice. I should know to whom I'm speaking. She's correct, of cou
The North Sea, West of Denmark, North: 5'19" Monday, August 28, 2017 Personal Liberation Part I -- Freedom of Information Emerging from a set of rants about ways invisible forces sculpt our identities—restricting and constrict
Friday, August 25, 2017 Amsterdam, Netherlands Who Sculpts Identity -- The Problem of Time -- Part IV I remain eager to move onto posting about liberation already. I'm just not quite ready yet. I write from vacation in
Glendale, California Sunday, August 20, 2017 Who Sculpts Your Identity? -- Part III Until last week, I soundly rejected questions, requests, urgent requests, and finally pleas to "do something" about my diminishing hearing. I denied
Sunday, August 13, 2017 Arcadia, California Who Sculpts Your Identity? -- Part II Although already anticipating a missive about the influence of BOXES on identity today, I had NO idea how box-like my day would be. I have an em
Pasadena, California Thursday, August 10, 2017 Who Sculpts Your Identity? -- Part I Despite your passion for personal freedom, you may find the many constricting forces shaping your sense of self humbling. Consider how language, geog
Santa Fe, New Mexico Saturday, August 5, 2017 A Santa Fe Paradox Guilt seems a fair emotion to describe what persons interested in social justice might feel when spending a weekend in Santa Fe. I travelled here to relax for a
July 30, 2017 Glendale, California In Praise of American Free Speech For all of its problems, America still retains world prominence in the realm of freedom of speech. Perhaps Sweden, Norway, and other social democracies offer greate
Saturday, July 29, 2017 Glendale, California Hope In Antithesis Hope thrives in recent Trump failures. It thrives in the Hegelian idea of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The Trumpcare bill, full, skinny, and never understood, fail
Wednesday, July 26, 2017 Pasadena, California Defensive Splitting and Partisan Politics In response to John McCain's speech to the US Senate yesterday, I write regarding the defense mechanism known as splitting. It is a term-o
Sunday, July 23, 2017 Glendale, California Resolving the Materialism Versus Idealism Debate I fear my genius son-in-law, a theoretical physicist, will hate this. Another physicist I know may share a similar loathing. He said this: Ph
Friday, July 21, 2017 Pasadena, California Transference, Reality, or Error? For my readers concerned about any alleged excessive political focus, I write today about a distressing clinical encounter. The incident troubled me f
Saturday, July 15, 2017 Glendale, California Money, Psychoanalysis, and Social Democracy Psychoanalysts should be Marxist, says French intellectual Jacques Lacan. Why? Because in capitalist systems, patients must pay for psychoanalyt
Varadero, Cuba Friday, July 7, 2017 Derangement: Internal to External to Political If the internal world differs too greatly from the external one, serious problems occur. For example, persons with schizophrenia--a mental disorder ca
Varadero, Cuba Wednesday, July 5, 2017 Cuba Libre: Parte Dos Although endless topics come to mind when traveling in Cuba, I pursue two psychoanalytic ideas -- idealization and devaluation -- and one political one -- world peac
Tuesday, July 2, 2017 Havana, Cuba Cuba, Communism, and the Inner World Communism's failure is obvious here in Cuba. The state-run, communist government -- which has gradually introduced some capitalist reforms -- nonetheless offers
Pasadena, California Thursday, June 29, 2017 Simplify Life; Simplify Healthcare The strangest thing happened nine years ago. As I recovered from open heart surgery necessitated by an infection-destroyed-aortic valve, I began s
Glendale, California Sunday, June 25, 2017 Disturbing Angles on Truth, Meta-Truth, and Lies When patients present for psychoanalytic psychotherapy, their psychoanalysts take them at their word. You say your mother was terrible
Saturday, June 24, 2017 Glendale, California Facebook's Dark Side Seeking readers for my blog, I reluctantly became a personal FB member a few weeks ago. My darling editor, Andrea, had helped me connect my blog to FB a few mon
Wednesday, June 21, 2017 Pasadena, California Psycho-Political Immaturity: Trump on Cuba In prior posts, I have emulated Plato by threading together ideas from psychoanalysis and politics. I weave again, this time exploring Trump's r
Glendale, California Saturday, June 17, 2017 CNN, FOX, NBC and The Rise of the Spectacle When you consult psychoanalysts, you receive a unique kind of information. Ideally, you also achieve transformation. You learn about your
Pasadena, California Tuesday, June 13, 2017 Maturity, Trump, and Cults of Personality Most persons consulting psychoanalytic psychotherapists struggle with their interpersonal relationships. Some patients complain of their emo
Glendale, California Sunday, June 11, 2017 Leaks, Journalism, and the Unconscious Mind For all their theoretical infighting, the different psychoanalytic schools share a common interest in one human phenomenon: The unconscious
Wednesday, June 7, 2017 Los Angeles, California Kant, Trump, and Jury Service Foolishly forgetting the option for jury service orientation online, I sit in the back of the jury service room at the Criminal Courthouse in downtown Los
Friday, June 2, 2017 Pasadena, California Parisian Idiocy Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accord signifies much more than a step back from concern for scientifically-established climate change. It repr
Monday, May 29, 2017 Glendale, California Psychoanalyzing Trump's Parisian Climate Retreat In prior posts, I have proposed the word integration as the best way to think of mature, well functioning persons. They are capable of integra
Glendale, California Sunday, May 28, 2017 Psychoanalyzing Terrorism Terrorism results from many, complex causes. Even if just only discussing it from a psychological perspective, it has multiple etiologies. Terrorism tends to
Glendale, California Saturday, May 20, 2017 Presidential Projection Extraordinaire People tend to find the concept of projection fascinating. And, in the psychoanalytic world, it's a rather complex idea. I use several of Trump
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 Glendale, California Borderline Personality Disorder: A Presidential Example Responding to criticism from my friend and suite mate, Helen-of-Troy, I strive to leave politics and return to psychoanalysis. Well,
Saturday, May 13, 2017 Washington, DC Trump, Putin, and Media Manipulation Staying a half-block from the White House invites a strange vibe, a feeling-in-the-air, an urgency. I read of Melania hosting mothers of service persons tomor
Thursday, May 11, 2017 Washington, DC DC Disintegration Writing across the street from the center of the storm, I offer further reflections on maturity -- or lack thereof. The idea of integration is central to psychological ma
Death Valley, California May 2, 2017 Let Your Children Go Inevitably, someone stumbles into depth psychotherapists' offices struggling with a problem acutely troubling them . It is an occupational hazard. If lucky, it facilitates the
Friday, April 28, 2017 Death Valley, California Mobile Madness More than ever in human history, people walk the streets shouting. Wires hang from their ears. They hold the wires to their mouths. They talk to themselves, gestic
Glendale, California Sunday, April 23, 2017 My Dear Readers, Fiction controls your life more than you know. A plethora of examples come to mind, but I begin with only ones related to the aggressive advertising practices of global corporatio
Pasadena, California Tuesday, April 18, 2017 Dear Readers, Last weekend's election in Turkey struck another blow to the ever-threatened freedom of people around the world. Erdogan successfully albeit unfairly won a "mandate" to dismantle th
Pasadena, California April 14, 2017 Dear Readers, A habit I label time psychosis causes me to often run late. It results from omnipotence, a form of magical thinking. It relates to the Buddha's Four Noble Truths. (How's that for loose assoc
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 Glendale, California Dear Readers, Reeling from a critique I received from my last post, I balance out my ideas about the masochism to narcissism continuum in this one. I elaborate, specifically, on the narc
Sunday, April 9, 2017 Glendale, California Dear Readers, If not one yourself, you probably know persons who obsessively worry about how they've impacted others. They think: "Did I say something that hurt his feelings? Did my remark elicit a
Pasadena, California Wednesday, April 5, 2017 Dear Readers, Troubled by the LA Times' series of editorials about Trump's lies, I offer advice on how to tell truth from fiction: 1. Remember language has limitations: Nietzsche once wrote, "La
Monday, April 3, 2017 Pasadena, California Dear Readers, I remain haunted by Sam Harris' book Free Will. Arguments against his strict determinism pop into my mind at unexpected times, reminiscent of the intrusive recollections
Glendale, California Saturday, April 1, 2017 Heya Readers, Once you begin delving into philosophy, you face immediate choices. You likely want some kind of grounding or foundation. I do. If you start in the West, you face the contrast betwe
Pasadena, California Thursday, March 30, 2017 Dear Lovely Readers, I remain marginally obsessed by thoughts about free will. I keep mentally running through the pro and con arguments. I had one thought I now share. It seems to support the i
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 Pasadena, California Dear Readers, Today Donald Trump headed out to EPA headquarters to begin his plan to dismantle the many climate saving measures put into effect by Obama. Fortunately, his efforts will be greeted
Pasadena, California Monday, March 27, 2017 Dear Readers, Imagine the guts of Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption activist in Russia who organized the country-wide protests yesterday. He showed the courage to publicize the problem of corrup
Glendale, California Sunday, March 26, 2017 Dear (Hopefully) Increasing Number of Readers, I had planned to write about the idea of global citizenship, about how we could begin taking steps to bring more harmony to the world. I figured I wo
Glendale, California Saturday, March 25, 2017 Oh Lovely Readers, I reacted with immense sadness—lasting several days—after finishing Sam Harris' book, Free Will . He makes an apparently seamless argument that we have none. For example, he w
Pasadena, California Tuesday, March 21, 2017 My Dear Readers, One of the lovely elements of practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapy in a private practice setting is the clarity in the nature of the professional relationship. Psychotherapist
Saturday, March 18, 2017 Glendale, California Dear Readers, Having spent more than three decades providing depth psychotherapy, I've observed a few universals of human behavior. Luckily, they are backed up by social science research. For ex
Seattle, Washington Friday, March 10, 2017 Dear Readers, Such an unbelievable cliche, I know. Traveling up here to visit my youngest, now age 26, brings it front and center. I am freaking at the rapid passage of time. I brought with me a re
Sunday, March 5, 2017 Glendale, California Dear Lovely Readers, Immersed in a recent obsession with Taoism, I write today about form and emptiness. I tie my thoughts into the general theme of this blog which, as you know, concerns the speci
Saturday, February 25, 2017 Glendale, California 2pm Dear Readers, I write in an extremely irritable, annoyed, bitchy mood, prompting me to blog about this intense subject: MOOD Mood reminds me of the weather. Despite the proliferation of s
Glendale, California Sunday, February 12, 2017 Dearest of Readers, Last Wednesday I had the thrill of watching my friend, Ron Novotny, Esq, argue a labor case before the Ninth Circuit federal court in Pasadena. The timing was excellent. The
Sunday, February 5, 2017 Glendale, California My Dear Readers, You've heard of the idea of psychological defense mechanisms like denial, suppression, sublimation, or disavowal. Much like the idea of the body's immune system, these unconscio
Glendale, California January 29, 2017 Just days before the media blanketed us with "alternative facts" and other newly popular distortions of truth, a lovely student in Hong Kong stood up at the end of a one day, eight hour class and asked,
Sunday, January 21, 2017 Glendale, California (Pouring Rain with Flood Warnings!) I have written recently about the problem with trusting the accuracy of the media. Last night offered a painful example of the problem. I watched CNN between
Wednesday, January 18, 2017 Hong Kong, China Dearest Tolerant Readers, Every year, the Oxford English Dictionary selects its favorite word for the year. For 2016, just past, they chose the word "post-truth." What a sad commentary on the sta
Thursday, January 12, 2017 Guilin, China Dearest Readers, While hiding out here in South China between lectures about psychoanalysis, the World Bank Forum met and delivered an unsurprising conclusion regarding populism. Its spokesperson sai
Thursday, January 3, 2017 Shanghai, China My Dear Readers, Landing in Shanghai yesterday after 14 hours nonstop flying from Los Angeles, I was immediately struck by the few differences in people in the airport arrivals area. I stood in the
Monday, January 2, 2017 Glendale, California My Dear Readers, Turning 60 ain't fun, but it seems you finally have more time for reading. And I've been reading like a maniac lately, including recently finishing a book I've had on my bookshel
Sunday, December 4, 2016 Cayucos, California Dear Readers, What could the Dakota Access Pipeline and psychoanalysis possibly have in common? It is likely impossible to simply define the goals of psychoanalysis or psychodynamic therapy. Howe
Cayucos, California Sunday, November 27, 2016 Dear Readers, I stray from psychoanalysis tonight to discuss politics, local politics, politics of the administrative type. I write to share a concern that I have developed after more than two d
Pasadena, California November 11, 2016 Dear Readers, Although I intend this blog to educate about psychoanalysis, Tuesday's election of Donald Trump dramatically reveals a lack of a capacity for dialogue that, in turn, directly relates to a
October 30, 2016 Glendale, California Dear Readers, Last night I watched a documentary I could not possibly recommend enough: Hypernormalization by BBC journalist Adam Curtis. It was released just a few weeks ago. You can find it on the web
Glendale, California October 23, 2016 1230p Dear Readers, Whoever You May Be: Call it a regression, but I've fallen into reading Iris Murdoch, new to me, and also Erich Fromm, not so new. I don't think I have looked at one of his books sinc
Saturday, September 17, 2016 Glendale, California Dear Readers: I blog this morning to share I share my fairly strong negative reaction to a conference on ISTDP I attended yesterday entitled, "A Day with a Master Allan Abbass, MD: Treating
Glendale, California February 28, 2016 Dear Readers, I hope to amuse you with a tale about the history of ideas, in this case related to my efforts to introduce the phrase "transformational encounters" into the psychoanalytic lexicon. I hav
Saturday, February 20, 2016 Glendale, California Dear Readers, Clinicians in training at Rose City Center in Pasadena asked me yesterday to describe how I present the depth psychotherapy process to patients. Oftentimes those who consult us,
Pasadena, California February 7, 2016 Dear Readers, Any effort to unify clinical psychoanalysis requires one basic assumption: Theories of mind must be considered a source of metaphor, not of truth. Wallerstein (2013) proposes the same idea
Sunday, January 3, 2016 Santa Barbara, California Dear Lovely Readers of this Blog, Thanks you, Robbie, for generally acknowledging the ideas I presented initially regarding ways to organize clinical psychoanalysis. And thanks also to you,
As part of an ongoing scholarly and political effort to unify clinical psychoanalysis, I am initiating this blog to invite colleagues, students, and lay people to discuss clinical psychoanalysis—better described as sets of "transformational
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Idque Caesaris facere voluntate liceret: sese habere. Magna pars studiorum, prodita quaerimus. Magna pars studiorum, prodi
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Idque Caesaris facere voluntate liceret: sese habere. Magna pars studiorum, prodita quaerimus. Magna pars studiorum, prodi
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Idque Caesaris facere voluntate liceret: sese habere. Magna pars studiorum, prodita quaerimus. Magna pars studiorum, prodi
No articles match that search.