Foucaultian Slip? We were visiting one of the relatives who is gravely ill today. Since she sleeps nearly all the time now, I brought my books along to to some reading and writing. I have been reading Foucault’s book, Madness, The Invention of an Idea, and posting my thoughts on this subject, which is very […]
Organic pathology Physical ailments are much easier to recognize than mental disorders. For example, a person with the flu has a fever, aches and pains, and other recognizable signs; there are laboratory tests that can determine whether a person with a sore throat and a fever has an infection. A doctor can successfully treat the […]
The family’s gone. So I thought I’d pick up some light reading. I frequently gravitate toward the philosophy section of the bookstore, and it was there I came upon the book Madness, The Invention of an Idea by Michel Foucault (Foulcault, M. translation: Sheridan, A. Madness, The Invention of an Idea. New York: Harper Perennial Modern […]
It is fascinating to read about Klee’s approach to his art. It is daunting, however, to read his own explanations. I checked his Pedagogical Sketchbook out of the library. I imagine that this would have been a great auxiliary text to the students at the Bauhaus, where he taught. I’m sure the students had the […]
Having barely recovered from the shock of absence of Dragonfruit in the produce store, imagine my delight as I walked into the grocery store and saw this: This is a Kiwano, or Horned Melon. (Good substitute for Dragonfruit, don’t you think, Liz and Woman Unadorned?) It is hard to tell from the sketch, but those […]
Artistry of the Mentally Ill As I discussed yesterday, the first few pages of Artistry of the Mentally Ill, by Hans Prinzhorn set up the criteria for viewing pictorial artwork by those who had been institutionalized for mental illness. Dr. Prinzhorn was uniquely qualified to investigate this subject, having been an art historian before becoming […]
I’m going to take a break from trying to pick a philosophy of life. If I’ve waited this long, it doesn’t really matter if I take a little longer. I suppose that I actually have one by default, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is. Here is a partial list of some, perhaps […]
Speaking of absurd, it was a little grandiose of me to think that, on Thanksgiving Day, with all the rigamarole that accompanies it, I could compose even a partial discourse about the absurd. Seriously… So here are some short notes: At the beginning of The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus says, “All great deeds and all […]
A week ago I was just getting back from seeing my families. In my original family, my place is that of a son and a brother; in my family of choice, I am a husband, stepfather and grandfather. My granddaughter calls me Zaydie out of respect for my Jewish heritage. It was her parents’ idea. […]
In his book Proust was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer illustrates how the revelations of the arts and literature give us insight into the human mind with as much, and possibly more clarity than does the work of neuroscientists. The chapter about Paul Cézanne caught my interest. Cézanne’s vision The impressionists, whose work was contemporaneous with […]
