Category Archives: Memoir

The Psalms

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Abigail

The Psalms The other day, and night, I was having a dark night of the soul. It was about A Good Look at Evil again, and the recurrent struggle to get my book shown correctly on Amazon. My patient readers … Continue reading →

Posted in Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Childhood, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, Heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, non-violence, novels, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a good book, abandonment, Amazon books, assertiveness training, Balmedie Scotland, bedtime reading, beleaguered widow, boring Psalms, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", dark night of the soul, despair, divine human intimacy, English-speakers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, feeling abandoned, feeling overwhelmed, frustration, hardback and paperback, Hebrew and English, invisible God, Jesus' last words, Judeo-Christian Civilization, Louisville Kentucky, modern translations of the Bible, non-detachment, non-sublimation, orphans, personal concern, pompous philanthropist, Psalm 22, Psalms, publication date, reading Psalms, real estate acquisitions, research assistant, revised versions, Scotland golf course, self-concern, talking politics, the English language, the human condition, The King James version, Trump's career, Trump's character, unconcealedness, virtuous life, widows and orphans, Wipf and Stock | Leave a comment

My Identity Crisis

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Abigail

My Identity Crisis Our week in California, never an easy one — because much has always required attention there — was difficult in various ways but notably hard for me this time. First, the neuropathy treatments I get at Loma … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Gender Balance, glitterati, Health, Heroes, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, novels, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social construction, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", adolescence, anthropology, Ashley Wilkes, blood circulation, cause of neuropathy, difficult vacation, Dr. Mark Bussell, empirical outlook, evil defined, experimental treatment, good and evil, Hannah Arendt, Holocaust controversies, identity crisis, identity formation, Margaret Michell's "Gone With The Wind", moral illustrations, moral reflection, neuro-vascular system, neurologists, neuropathy, neuropathy diagnosis, Neuropathy Institute at Loma Linda, philosophic arguments, philosophic originality, political philosopher, reading romances, research hospital, Rhett and Scarlet, side effects, the good life, the Holocaust, The Jews | Leave a comment

I Dreamed I Saw Grandpa

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Abigail

I Dreamed I Saw Grandpa Let me make this clear: my family did not go in for paranormal visitations. They lived in the same world of hard knocks and occasional fun we all share. And, though I was close to … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, Childhood, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, Eternity, Ethics, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Ideality, Identity, Immortality, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, Love, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, Ontology, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, Power, presence, Psychology, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged afterlife, afterlife reunion, aimless people, ancestry, anomie, Atheism, bible as historical, co-religionists, doctorate in Judaica, dream visitations, dreams, grandfather, groundedness, Halacha, hard knocks, Hebrew, indissoluble reality, Jerusalem, Jerusalem street, Jewish law, Judaica, Marxism, Modernity, Oral Law, paranormal, paranormal visitations, partriarchal God, patriarch, personal vibrancy, philosophic lineage, Plato, proof-text, psychoanalysis, rabbinic disputation, Rav Tsair, Rechov Rav Tsair, religion shopping, resurrection, sad Jewish eyes, sense of direction, street names, Talmudists, The Covenant, validation | Leave a comment

Battered, Bruised … but Unbowed?

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Abigail

Battered, Bruised … but Unbowed? Last week, reflecting on my deep reluctance to do anything that would promote my newly-released book, A Good Look at Evil, second edition, I determined that the real barrier isn’t that I believe I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged A. G. Eric Scheniderman, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", abusive men, abusive relationships, Amazon’s “Look Inside”, amazon’s books, assertiveness training, bad guys winning, being outnumbered, betrayal of trust, Bible study, Bill Clinton, book endorsements, book promotion, chariots of fire, cheering the sick, combatting adversity, compliance with abuser, coping with setbacks, decent manhood, defending one’s work, demands of nature, distance healing, electronic preview, embezzler, evil diagnosed, evil portrayed, female receptivity, female vulnerability, feminine pliancy, feminine sensitivity, femininity as social construct, feminism’s counsels, fictional stories, getting evil’s number, giving up the fight, hype, II Kings 6:15-17, internalizing real problems, jacket blurbs, Juanita Broaddrick, king of Syria, life as story, lifemanship, mirror of evil, modern cynicism, modernity’s worldview, mug shot, nameless adversary, narrative view, nature v nurture, neuropathy treatment, nineteenth century novels, nonfiction narrative, not giving up, Pentateuch, persistence as key, persistence as victory, prayer guidance, prayer-based healing, predator in disguise, projection, protecting one’s book, publication date, puffery, rabbinic duties, satanic attack, sexual predator, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, sting operation, stress fracture, string of accidents, taking oneself seriously, the sleeping dogs, thwarted story, Torah Study, true stories, unexpected guest, Victorian novels, woman's nature, women’s disguising armor, yin and yang | 2 Comments

Before Feminism – and After!

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Abigail

Before Feminism – and After! Lately, I’ve been reading When Men Were the Only Models We Had, by Carolyn Heilbrun. It’s a memoir on coming of age as an intellectual woman before feminism. As a graduate student in Columbia … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, novels, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", anti-women jokes, bloodless social revolution, brilliant women, careerist, Carolyn Heilbrun’s When Men were the Only Models We Had, castrating females, Clifton Fadiman, Columbia class of 1925, Columbia University, Columbia University English Department, coming of age memoir, control of women, coquetry, delightful women, divorced women, doctoral candidacy, documentary histories of feminism, economic dependence on men, electro-shock therapy, end of communism, exclusivist maleness, father-daughter relation, feminism and women’s health, feminism as humanism, filial piety, flight into convent, flight into religiosity, Frenchwomen, friends and lovers, good writing, graduate student, hemophilia of the future Tsar, Henry and Rachelle Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal, intellectual friendships, intellectual originality, intellectually alive, intelligence not enough, involuntary confinement, Jacques Barzun, jargon-free writing, killing motivation, Leo Bronstein, life of the mind, Lionel Trilling, Lionel Trilling correspondence, literary criticism, literary friendships, lobotomies, male academic dominance, male career models, male friendships, male intellectual models, male professional dominance, marital trouble, memoir, men in academe, mister right, negative vs. positive liberation, No Girls Allowed, over-sensitive, Phyllis Chesler’s The Politically Incorrect Feminist, pretentious writing, professional sovietologists, psychiatric abuse of dissenters, psychiatric abuse of women, punishment of dissenters, Reading Dostoevsky, reading Proust, reading Thomas Mann, Russian-accented English, sex discrimination, sexism, Sigmund Freud, the feminine mind, the feminist revolution, the masculine mind, the Pope in Warsaw, the Woman-principle, theoretical disparagement of women, understanding people, unpretentious writing, woman’s social power, womanly arts, womanly authority, womanly models, women as colleagues, women as friends, women graduate students, women’s dependence on men, women’s health, women’s need for men, women’s social dependence on men | Leave a comment

“Evil? What Do You Mean, ‘Evil’?”

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Abigail

“Evil? What Do You Mean, ‘Evil’”? Back when the first edition of A Good Look at Evil came out, I told a Maine neighbor that I had written a book about evil. He was a carpenter who had done a … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged backhanded compliment, biological determinism, class privilege, common sense, concealed enmity, controlling, copping out, cruelty, cultural determinism, cultural relativism, defying public opinion, denial, determinism, dissent from consensus, dodging responsibility, Downeast, encounters with evil, environmental determinism, escapism, evil as objective, evil as subjective, experimental psychology, expertise, fact/value split, fearing the worst, finding excuses, following the crowd, free will, guilt trip, hard-heartedness, history of evil, hitting the mark, holier-than-thou, hoping for the best, illusion of free will, illusion of freedom, indoctrination, insensitive, interested party, involuntary reactions, judgementalism, judgments of fact, judgments of value, Maine neighbors, manipulation, meanness, missing the mark, money privilege, moral absolutism, moral common sense, moral danger, moral evasion, moral evidence, moral interest, moral intuition, moral manipulation, moral relativism, moral superiority, moralistic language, morality moralism, narrowness, non-conformism, non-judgmentalism, one of the herd, out of control, out of touch, outlier, over-privileged, people as herd animals, personal condemnations, personal insults, projection, rationalizations, relativism, rigid, self-interest, self-righteousness, skepticism, social privilege, subjective relativism, the loner, tongue-lashing, tyranny's recruits, unconscious motivations, unforgiving | Leave a comment

Sex, Honor and Philosophy

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Abigail

Plato wrote a dialogue, The Symposium, on this very topic. The setting is a drinking party held to celebrate the victory of one of the guests in a poetry contest. They go round the circle, each guest standing up to give a speech on the Great Question of the evening: What is love? Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Candid Camera", Alcibiades, ancient drinking party, ancient Greeks, austerity, blacklisting, breaking eggs, Camelot, celibacy, Diotima, disproportionate punishment, eros, eros and biology, eros and health, eros and memory, eros and politics, eros and the beautiful, eros and the good, eros of ambition, eros of social life, erotic disempowerment, erotic empowerment, erotic motives, erotic sin, holier-than-thou, injured pride, love object, love of wisdom, man/woman love, musicals, Parisian café, philosophic friendship, Plato, Plato's dialogues, Plato’s Symposium, pleasure, poetry contest, preserving femininity, preserving masculinity, professional death, professional honor, reparations, romantic speeches, Russian soul, safe space, same-sex love, seclusion, seduction, self-protection, sex and dominance, sex and revenge, sexual harassment, social change, soulmate, The Academy, the man/woman ratio, the mating game, the secret of love, The Symposium, transcendent perfection, virtue signaling, What is love? | Leave a comment

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Category Archives: Memoir

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