Up Close and Personal
Biennially, the National Portrait Gallery fosters a competition where artists around the country submit intimate portrayals of a human being – sometimes themselves. In this video portrait, 2013 award winner Bo Gehring presents Esperanza Spalding (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OeZxytSV3M)
No Words
On a recent trip to Germany, I was very interested to see their modern art, to see what sense the people are making of who they are. Contemporary psychoanalytic thinking holds that some facts of human existence cannot be said but rather shown, as expressed in the arts.
Horizons
A favorite amusement during my elementary-school years was a puzzle-map of the United States. The puzzle pieces comprised all the states. The top of the puzzle went beyond the USA halfway up Canada, and the bottom ended halfway through Mexico.
You Never Leave Home
“So, are you Russian?” The short answer has always been, yes. The long answer is, “Well, I am a Jew, from a Russian speaking city in Ukraine on the border with Russia, but really from the former Soviet Union.”
Sour Patch Kids: The Analyst’s Sweet Tooth
I breeze down the vegetable aisle at the local supermarket and deliberate: baby arugula or the 50% mix of arugula and spinach?
Thinking About Culture and Aggression
Conflict is a pervasive phenomenon charged with emotions driven by difference in cultural perspectives. That applies to conflicts ranging from wars between countries to small “misunderstandings” between individuals.
Here, There, Everywhere
I had a dream recently. In my dream I am sitting in my bedroom waiting for my next patient. No, I didn’t see patients in my bedroom until the pandemic started.
DARKness IS SADness
An important part of a psychoanalytic treatment is discovery. How can you deal with a problem if it is out of your awareness or you have no words to describe it?
Touchstones
Many patients wonder how therapists can receive and contain the grievances that they need to voice in treatment without retaliation or resentment.
Othering
Even in a world where one feels mostly accepted, we can at times feel alone and excluded—removed from others whose lives we perceive as more whole, more fulfilling, better.