Label: Sigmund Freud

The cradle rocks on

The cradle rocks on

The new program for "With psychoanalysis from the cradle to the grave" has arrived. Now in its 23rd year, a true institution. The autumn theme seems to be literature. August Strindberg, Lars Ahlin...

Personally, I'm especially looking forward to 20/12: "What significance does Freud's Jewish identity have for psychoanalysis?", with, among others, Svante Weyler.

Location: ABF building on Sveavägen, Stockholm

The Swedish Psychoanalytic Association arranges: https://www.psykoanalys.se

Fly with Frankl

Fly with Frankl

There is no point in just re-posting what is already on YouTube, for anyone to watch. But this was special, to me, so I'm doing it anyway. It is remarkable in any case.

Viktor Frankl, who I don't really know much about. He was in a concentration camp, survived, became a psychiatrist (probably an analyst too, because everyone became one at the time). Founded his own school, which he called “Logotherapy”?

In neo-spiritual circles, he has a special place, alongside Jung, the founder of psychosynthesis, Assagioli, and a few others. Because they are perceived as softer, more human.

I have owned his most well-known book, probably in a couple of installments, but never read it: "Life must have meaning". Never heard or seen him speak before. Perhaps not so many have done that, after all? But here is a lovely, energetic clip from a lecture, where he - as I understand it - explains the basis of his motto, this "meaning". He does it from 1 min 20 sec in using an airplane metaphor.

Jung in Psykologtidningen

Jung in Psykologtidningen

“Applications for the course in Jungian psychology [University of Gävle] have increased by 650 percent in the last five years. The training places, which were previously 15, are now 130. According to Åke Tilander, many of those accepted are studying in the psychology, sociology and medical programs. With the course, they want to get a complement and a comprehensive understanding of the human being."

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Sick pioneers

Sick pioneers

“It all began in the early 1920s in Vienna. Wilhelm Reich was not only a young student of Freud's... But the father of psychoanalysis himself called him: 'Der beste Kopfe.' 'The best mind in psychoanalysis.' His ideas were so brilliant that already at the age of 22 – well before finishing his studies – Freud introduced him to work as a Psychoanalyst.”

This pops up in my feed (an ad for something called “Metameric massage”). I don't know much about Wilhelm Reich, hardly anything at all, other than that he somehow derailed in his career.

But I'm starting to think about the genius and madness thing. Was recently reminded of another such freethinker-pioneer, RD Laing, who also derailed, disappeared & whose work and ideas had long been left in the psychiatric-therapeutic freezer. But as it is taught again today.

Yes, Madness and Genius, how they go together. I think that something that many of the pioneers, the founders of schools, in the world of psychology (I stick to this one) had in common, is that they were troubled souls. “Cross-border.” But what lies beneath this? What does their anxiety or desire to cross boundaries come from?

I think it often has to do with the early upbringing, really a kind of lack or imbalance, actually. How to get along with mom or dad (or the equivalent), simply put. Fairly harmonious individuals, who early (psychologically) found their place in the world, rarely have what it takes. They rarely have that itch to take revenge or leave their mark on the world, to rebel against establishment & authorities. The deep experience that you have something unique to bring, something that you obviously need to manifest.

Thus, that it is actually a blemish, a developmental psychological deficiency in those who push on. They can achieve great things, find truths, make important contributions, but fundamentally or in some respects, at least in the beginning, they are "sicker" than average.

An unreliable memory

An unreliable memory

This morning I passed this house on Dalagatan in Stockholm. Took a picture that I shared on Facebook. I wrote:

“Passing the 'Eastman Institute', which is an eye clinic for children... Learned the other day that it was actually THAT Eastman, George Eastman, who once donated the money to be able to start that place. He who made his fortune by inventing the small picture film & the 'Kodak' camera.”

I enjoy taking photos. Had read that story in detail & with interest a few days ago. So it had become a vivid memory.

After a while it was an acquaintance who pointed out that wasn't it rather a TAND reception? She herself had received braces from there a long time ago.

And, of course!, that was WHAT I had read. And had no problem recalling the actual story. That Eastman insisted that the young should have good teeth, because a healthy, beautiful smile does so much for a good life, etc.

But completely unconsciously I had beautified the whole thing (photo pioneer=children's eyes)? And if I hadn't been corrected, that particular version would have become even clearer to me, I had even retold it to others...

Long, about a small event in everyday life, but which tells me something important, for me. On the subject of false, fabricated, or at least refined, memories. The unreliability of memory? The creativity of memory?

What was wrong with Freud?

What was wrong with Freud?

People like to pick on Sigmund Freud. He did and thought and wrote so many strange things.

Sometimes it feels as if he has become like a mix of "The Progenitor" in his own imaginative theories, who is challenged and killed (and chewed up) by his unborn sons - and by Särimmer in Norse mythology. He keeps respawning so you can hump him 🙂

But - so sometimes people manage to remember that, okay, he actually lived a hundred years ago. How many other quirky and limited things didn't happen then! Various cultural figures who were petty Nazis, racists, misogynists, etc. And at the same time recognized talented, artistic, profound, wise and sensitive individuals.

And then you can normally calm down a bit, get your heart rate down. It is as if one still has some basic understanding of what is called "mentality history", which can then be activated. This means that a collective development has taken place on certain levels.

But, oh that's where I was going!, I wonder if we who have been deeply impressed by various neo-spiritual/esoteric ideas might even be extra inclined to judge Freud? And find it hard to overlook his flaws? That our thinking apparatus may have even become a little shabby or underdeveloped in some respects due to the spiritual beliefs? How then?

Well (speculatively), because one has been dazzled, intoxicated to the point of the thought of "eternal, timeless wisdom", "enlightened people" (or even the company of such individuals), etc., which must have existed in all times & who watched the world and fellow human beings much like we ourselves can do, that Freud can then be dismissed as an average or parenthesis.

When in fact he was so much ahead of his time that many have not yet had time to sink in... His thoughts still offer resistance, challenge. (Although a lot has also become part of the common vocabulary, of course, or the usual way of looking at oneself or each other.)

At the same time as he was a man of his time, too, that is.

Spirituality from the cradle to the grave

Spirituality from the cradle to the grave

It's just words. As you use to get something said, catch it where you anticipate, and be able to be reasonably understood by others, it's a wobbly dance. (Like him who painted with jam in creamed milk on TV many years ago?) 🙂

Anyway, I'll let spirituality be the overriding concept, the phenomenon. Spirituality is newer spirituality, new age & much more. Religion, yes the institutionalized, the reasonably permanent or slowly changing, in both tradition, idea and matter.