Category Archives: Confessions of a Young Philosopher
Traumatic Memories: Past and Future
I used to take pride in my excellent memory. But sadly, it got somewhat less excellent after my first marriage. Perhaps my psyche decided that certain scenes from that part of my life story were best left un-remembered. With regard … Continue reading
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Tagged abused children and PTSD, anti-semitism and higher education, anti-semitism as cultural inheritance, anti-semitism as ongoing trauma, anti-semitism as the return of the repressed, anti-semitism in universities, biochemical markers of Holocaust trauma, biochemical markers of trauma, brain function and trauma, C-PTSD, consciousness-raising groups, cultural attitudes toward trauma, domestic abuse and law, global anti-semitism, healing trauma, Herzl’s vision of a Jewish state, Holocaust trauma, Holocaust victims, increasing anti-semitism, inherited trauma, intergenerational trauma, Israel’s resistance to anti-semitism, Israeli Nobel Prize winners, Jewish resistance to anti-semitism, Judith L. Herman’s Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, laws against marital rape, laws against wife-beating, lighting a candle vs cursing the darkness, memories of suffering, memory, memory loss, Oct 7 2023, Oct 8 2023, October 7-8, ongoing traumatizing events, past trauma, Peter A. Levine’s Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past, political history of trauma, post-Holocaust suppression of anti-semitism, psychic forgetting and trauma, psychic oubliettes, PTSD, PTSD and combat veterans, return of the repressed, social anti-semitism, Theodore Herzl, therapy for memory loss, therapy for trauma, third-generation Holocaust trauma, training trauma healers, trauma after Hamas atrocities, trauma and brain malfunction, trauma and memory, trauma healing before and after, trauma therapy, traumas past and present, traumas present and future, traumatic memory, unbearable psychic wounds, universities and anti-Israel demonstrations, world-wide anti-semitism, Zionism
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Women Who Want To Kill Themselves
Some years ago, when I was still working full time as a philosophy professor, I got a late-afternoon call from E.S. He was a senior colleague and good friend. We’d exchanged just a few words when he remarked, with concern, … Continue reading
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Tagged a daughter’s suicide, academic colleagues, academic friends, arguing a friend out of suicide, career setback, classic suicidal motivation, collegial friends, dishonor and Iberian culture, dishonor and suicide, feminist objections to “honor”, honor and modernity, honor as premodern concept, honor for men vs honor for women, impressing a romantic partner, loss of honor, loss of honor for men vs loss of honor for women, lost honor and suicide, official feminism and women’s reality, payback for the seducer, philosophical defense of “honor”, philosophical friends, philosophical objections to “honor”, philosophy professor, planning suicide, professional defeat, professional setback, psychological objections to “honor”, reasons for suicide, reasons women kill themselves, responding to a friend in crisis, restoring honor, romance and status, romantic eligibility, romantic setback, saving a friend at the cost of losing her, seducer, seducer as pretended supporter, seducer in self-help group, seduction and abuse of power, seduction and wanting to die, setbacks in work and romance, suicidal woman, suicide, suicide aftermath, suicide and counterargument, suicide and losing face, suicide and loss of honor, suicide and professional setback, suicide and tarnished image, suicide threat, taking advantage of a woman, taking advantage of vulnerability, taking threats seriously, talking a friend out of suicide, vulnerability and the seducer, witnessing a friend’s defeat, worthiness for romance
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On Being Read | Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
A philosophical work — especially one drawn from a life — is never simply understood. It is received and interpreted through the concerns of the reader. And in a careful reading, one may come to see not only what was intended, but also something … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, authenticity, book reviews, books, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, contemplation, memoir, modern women, philosophy, public intellectual, reading, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", book review
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The Unexpected
We returned yesterday evening from our week-long stay in California where I resumed treatments for neuropathy. The treatments that in earlier visits I’d received at the Intraneural Facilitation Treatment clinic affiliated with Loma Linda Hospital differed from the predictions of … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 1976 Entebbe rescue, anti-regime Iranian informants, anti-regime Iranian spies, Ayatollah Khamenei, cutting edge medical treatment, death of Khamenei, despair and recovery, expecting the unexpected, experimental treatment, first-tier Iranian leadership, hard to credit good news, hip fracture, hip surgeon, holistic treatment, hope and hopelessness, hope and recovery, Idi Amin, Idi Amin and Entebbe hijackers, INF Treatment, Israeli surprise attack, keeping state secrets, killing Khamenei, Loma Linda Hospital, Mark Bussell, medical doomsayers, medical specialization, medical whole body treatment, neuropathy, neuropathy treatments, neurovascular conditions, neurovascular treatment, physical therapy, predictions of doom, seizing the moment, surgical repair, the unexpected always happens, top dollar doctor, top secret Iranian meeting, unsatisfactory medical cure, US Israel coordination, war plans and secrecy, world news, world news vs good news
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What’s Your Spiritual Story: Abigail’s Confessions on Childhood, Time, and Spiritual Awakening
Abbie is in California this week for health treatments. She asks me to send the video below, where she and her husband, Jerry L. Martin from God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, discuss her early life from childhood’s moments of truth … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal, Coming-of-Age Spirituality, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, existentialism, feminine identity, Moral Idealism, Philosophy and Faith, spiritual autobiography, Spiritual crisis, Time and Impermanence, What’s Your Spiritual Story, women philosophers
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