Thursday, November 21, 2002

Seminar with Giegerich sorted by thread

Discussuon archives from '99

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Sunday, November 17, 2002

Cybergothic: the uncanny acculturation of the internet

Bryan Alexander in Mindjack Magazine

The dark and haunted spaces of the Gothic worked well to organize a group of anxieties about networked computers in the popular imagination, especially as hints and guesses supplanted lived and thoughtful experience for many. Fears of an unsupervised space where sexual depravity reigned unchecked, especially terrifying in the age of AIDS, projected well onto the internet's reality of cybersex. The Gothic's sexual allure, its creation of narrative spaces for reader titillation and/or exploration, described with surprising aptness the lonely user at the keyboard, looking for images and stories of forbidden or inaccessible bodies.

The shadow of anything is a window to the soul we sometimes reluctantly climb through, and so seeing the whole of the Net as a haunted place is one way of "getting it". Bryan is onto it! Haunted is not far from numinous.

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Saturday, November 16, 2002

Jungian Analysis: Maxson McDowell

Jungian Analysis: Maxson McDowell

I address both Noll’s and Pietikainen’s critiques by arguing that analytical psychology does not depend upon non-rational assumptions. (Medieval, Catalan: "Nativity")

My second argument, which I interweave with the first, is that relatedness is a central goal of the individuation journey. In brief, to relate is to engage consciously with the other. The other is found both in the outer world and in the inner world of the psyche. To relate in depth one must be open to that part of the other which is mysterious. To relate to the mysterious, I argue, one needs a standpoint in the rational.

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Dreams and God

Dreams and God

Introduction:
Why are dreams neglected in institutionally based religion? In what ways can a dream claim to be sacred? How does the "dream" imago Dei correspond with that of theology? Does a preconceived belief system interfere with the psychological interpretation of a dream? These were some of the issues addressed in this very interesting dialogue.

Dr. Gerard Condon is the Spiritual Director at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, Italy and a regular visitor to the Kristine Mann Library. He recently defended his doctoral thesis at the Gregorian University - the largest theologate in Rome. Entitled Christian Spiritual Dimensions of the Psychology of Carl Gustav Jung with Special Reference to his Use of Dreams, the thesis engages Jungian oneirology (dream theory) and Catholic theology in an Auseinandersetzung (confrontational dialogue) on divine revelation.

Dr. Harry Fogarty is a Jungian analyst, faculty member and supervisor at the C. G. Jung Institute of New York. He is also a Lecturer in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary and a former Trustee of The Kristine Mann Library.

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Thursday, November 14, 2002

Joel on Software - The Law of Leaky Abstractions

Joel on Software - The Law of Leaky Abstractions

One reason the law of leaky abstractions is problematic is that it means that abstractions do not really simplify our lives as much as they were meant to. When I'm training someone to be a C programmer, it would be nice if I never had to teach them about char*'s and pointer arithmetic. It would be nice if I could go straight to STL strings. But one day they'll write the code "foo" "bar", and truly bizarre things will happen, and then I'll have to stop and teach them all about char*'s anyway. Or one day they'll be trying to call a Windows API function that is documented as having an OUT LPTSTR argument and they won't be able to understand how to call it until they learn about char*'s, and pointers, and Unicode, and wchar_t's, and the TCHAR header files, and all that stuff that leaks up.

A really easy to read and clear article abour many complex things, including the reason why the world can keep getting worse.

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Sunday, November 10, 2002

Smart Mobs

Smart Mobs -

The core of this idea is the belief that, if the rules are tweaked the right way, technology companies in the next five years will have brought to market the equipment that will make the notion of electromagnetic-spectrum scarcity, a fundamental issue of telecom economics, seem quaint.

Equipment makers would create devices that would intelligently navigate through the congested airwaves

Via Howard, who got it from Larry...

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HCI International 2003

HCI International 2003 10th International Conference on Human - Computer Interaction

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Conference in Charleston, April 2003

Conference in Charleston, April 2003

The conference will explore the ways in which science and clinical practice can inform and contribute to each other and will look at the implications of recent research in other disciplines for our work with our patients. Analytical psychologists and psychoanalysts will exchange papers and responses, which will be complemented by workshops.

Participants will receive a certificate of attendance which can be used for Continuing Professional Development purposes.

WORKSHOPS

The Journal invites workshop proposals on a relevant theme (400-600 words) from those interested. These must be submitted to The Journal of Analytical Psychology by 31st January 2003.

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Walking - Henry David Thoreau

Walking

What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will walk? I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. It is not indifferent to us which way we walk. There is a right way; but we are very liable from heedlessness and stupidity to take the wrong one. We would fain take that walk, never yet taken by us through this actual world, which is perfectly symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior and ideal world; and sometimes, no doubt, we find it difficult to choose our direction, because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea.

I did it, eventually today I went out for a walk!

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Arundhati Roy, Howard Zinn - New Mexico Transcript

Scoop

Transcription of Arundhati Roy reading and Ms. Roy and Howard Zinn in conversation Lensic Performing Arts Center Santa Fe, New Mexico 18 September 2002

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Wired News: Diamonds? Who Cares? Give Me HDTV

Wired News: Diamonds? Who Cares? Give Me HDTV

The study confirmed that women like digital toys just as much as men, who are generally believed to be the main purchasers of electronic gear in the home, said a CEA spokesman.

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Tuesday, November 05, 2002

BLOGWISE



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Saturday, November 02, 2002

Ken Wilbur and hierarchy of being

ikosmos: Content and Context

Throughout his works, Wilber shows how the great wisdom traditions of the past, in all cultures, painted a consistent picture of the chain or cosmic hierarchy.

Looks like Ken Wilbur is into hierarchy of being. Chain is an interesting word here... chained to our place in the hierarchy. Obviously heroic to break those chains.

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Techne & Psyche

Techne & Psyche Dolores Brien has been weblogging again... great little essays, especially the one on George Gilder.

As a public intellectual George Gilder is on a par with Newt Gingrich but he's interesting because he exemplifies two dominant strains characterisic of our technoscientific culture. First, he is only among the most recent, in that long tradition going back to the Middle Ages, to give a religious significance to scientific discovery and technological innovation. As David Noble notes in The Religion of Technology, they are driven, despite their apparent worldliness, "by distant dreams, spiritual yearnings for supernatural redemption." Second, his writings and speeches expose that inclination beginning as far back as the Greeks to see in the principles governing the most significant or defining technologies of the time as the same principles by which every other aspect of human life is governed.

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Field, Form and Fate by Michael Conforti, Ph.D.

Field, Form and Fate by Michael Conforti, Ph.D.

In this book Michael Conforti convincingly argues that Jung's theory of archetypes is the psychological parallel to the scientific theory of self organizing dynamics in nature. I have just discovered this and noticed some resonance with my own reflections on archetype this morning.

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Ithaca

Ithaca

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind. To arrive there is your ultimate goal. But do not hurry the voyage at all. It is better to let it last for long years; and even to anchor at the isle when you are old, rich with all you have gained on the way, not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Love this poem, thanks Stephen, for sending it along a few years ago.

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Horatio Alger

Welcome to the Horatio Alger Society

To further the philosophy of Horatio Alger, Jr. and to encourage the spirit of Strive and Succeed that for half of a century guided Alger's undaunted heroes - lads whose struggles epitomized the great American dream and inspired hero ideals in countless millions of young Americans. An essay here to fill in the background a bit more: Horatio Alger: The Moral of the Story, by Theodore Dalrymple I am linking this in connection to the previous item ... realising that the archetype at work is the HERO... in a way I grapple with that image a lot. Even the links before that are a reflection of my interest in Pop Heroes.

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Autonomous psyche

I have been writing some paragraphs and adding them to my Autonomous psyche page. These snippets are beginning to describe a basic philosophy I have about the psyche. I wish I could get it together beyond snippets. Here is a quote from today's effort.

There once was a hierarchy of being, and it was valued to "know one's place" somewhere between God and mere dust. The way such a perception of the world has been used for control and to induce guilt is bad. However there is another side to the ancient idea which originates with Plato. We need to honour the fact that our birth circumstances are potent. We do not choose many aspects of our lives; we do not choose our genes, our culture, our birth geography or our sexuality.

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Richard O'Brien

O'Brien, Richard Creator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I just heard him interviewed by Kim Hill. So sad that these interviews are not available online. What an interesting man, and he grew up in NZ.

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Friday, November 01, 2002

Melanie McBride Interviews Warren Ellis

Mindjack - Interview - Warren Ellis Ellis writes comics, graphic novels, adult. Melanie McBride I have linked to before for her writing on McLuhan. I like the interview, and makes me want to read the books.

There is such a thing as truth. Non-relative, unassailable, valuable truth. Do not let people relativise the concept of truth into vapour.

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