PRISM:
Thoughts on familiar stuff
from a psychoanalytic lens….
The Girl Who Drank the Moon: A reflection on our culture’s approach to Madness
In The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill presented a city, called the Protectorate, in which each year the male Elders took the youngest child from the village on the Day of Sacrifice from their parents and left the child in the woods for a witch in the forest so as to satisfy the witch. The fate was almost universally accepted and comprehended as the necessary sacrifice among the people of the Protectorate.
Chelsea Hotel #3: An Alternate Elevator
I have been thinking of Janis Joplin’s heroin use and the sadness of it having never been understood for her. The song is the impression of Janis’ death on Leonard Cohen. They met in the elevator of the Chelsea Hotel and got involved. She died from an overdose after a period of attempted sobriety. It seems there was a disappointment in the relationship with the man with whom she was engaged to after not knowing him long. She had her sights on a picture of settling down. Tending to have Leonard Cohen songs echoing through my mind this time of year, I stayed overnight in the Chelsea neighborhood while taking the train from a conference in Boston. Hanging in the area made “Chelsea Hotel # 2” a prominent tune in my mind….
Phenomenological Listening : Beyond What is Heard
My specific way of working is called Intersubjective Systems Theory or Phenomenological Contextual Psychoanalytic Theory, a contemporary relational approach to psychotherapy. The approach is relational in seeing a person’s problems in the situation of their life and how they were impacted by their experiences. People are not seen as separate from others, nor are they from their world.