Category Archives: Culture

These Dark Times: A Tarot Meditation

Recently, a friend and colleague of mine wrote an essay entitled “Dark Times” in which she expressed recurring feelings of “powerlessness and despair” during these times that undeniably are so very dark for many of us. I instantly saw the … Continue reading

Posted in Art/Creativity, Culture, Justice, Politics | 2 Comments

The Riddle We Must Ask Ourselves Today

Ladies and gentlemen of this great chamber and country, on this most somber occasion I would like to use my allotted five minutes to tell you a story courtesy of the great mythologist Joseph Campbell. We might call this story … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Myth, Politics | 4 Comments

Whiplashed! Chazelle’s Small Film Suddenly Shines ‘Bigly’

Three years before he won the Best Director Oscar for La La Land Damien Chazelle’s low-budget film Whiplash understandably was criticized by some reviewers for its portrayal of jazz music and artistic genius. After all, in the fictional New York … Continue reading

Posted in Art/Creativity, Cinema, Culture, Politics | 3 Comments

The Man Who Would Be King: Why Trump’s Character Matters

  In an interview with Time ten years ago Holocaust survivor, author, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel was asked to name his favorite Biblical hero. Wiesel, who died July 2nd at age 87, selected Moses as a great legislator, commander-in-chief … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Depth Psychology, Myth, Politics | 5 Comments

The Recurring American Nightmare — A Freudian Perspective

After the deadly shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, earlier this month late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert momentarily struck a somber note. Like many, Colbert admitted his uncertainty about what to do in the face of the unremitting gun violence plaguing … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Depth Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Violence | 6 Comments