Anne > Recent Status Updates

I’m only 1/3 of the way through but so far might be my favorite book about psychotherapy and working with images. Very deeply satisfying and helpful.

Why was this book only suggested but not required in any of the classes in the doctoral program I was in at Pacifica many years ago? It should be required! I’m feeling sad about all the years I didn’t have Patricia Berry’s words as companions in my head. “The dogma of gender “ is so good and so relevant today!

Oh my gosh I love Lauren Groff’s writing so much that it’s making me do this little update which I normally never do. I wonder if this story is a wee bit autobiographical in that the main character finds her way through her superior writing ability….

“We don’t care for our children because we love them; we love them because we care for them”

Favorite chapters so far: the info on Dr. Eli Kolp’s recommended preparation, and the chapter on the transpersonal nature of the work using Jung’s concept of the Self (via Edinger’s Ego and Archetype).

Oh 257 “af Klint…. wanted to open people’s eyes to the fact that life did not have to be merely quotidian, that the world was larger than what could be seen, that is was mutable and subject to transformation. Consciousness could determine being.”

I’ve only made one recipe so far but I love this little book already. Each recipe is like a warm cozy little poem of flavors, with a simple picture and a small format that makes it feel more special than the average cookbook. Perfect for the dreary wet gray sunless days and nights of January.

I wonder if Gabor Mate has read any Hillman. The last chapter of this book is very similar or very much what Mate is saying in The Myth of Normal, but Hillman said it 20 years earlier.

I love Sonic Youth and I even more have always loved and admired Kim Gordon’s untouchable style of badassery. I’m excited to read this book, and especially more so after reading the reviews of people who didn’t like it.

IFS is pretty awesome and I’m glad it’s used so much. But you know what is even better, more comprehensive, more direct, more freeing, faster, and even more amazing? Acceptance and Integration Training. That’s one of the main approaches I use in my therapy practice. It includes parts work like IFS and a lot more. Check it out: https://aait.solutions/

Notes so far: what happened to his parents? Urban notes briefly that he was raised by his grandparents and does not explain why, and that his very beloved grandfather died when he was 7. A traumatic loss experience..? Also, the prediction by a fortune teller that he would die at age 21, which turned out to be the age he experienced enlightenment (ego death).

First recipe tried: excellent

Reading this now because Obama said it was his favorite book off 2015 (and I love Groff's books anyway). I wonder what Trump's favorite book of 2015 was? Perhaps a book of selfies he ordered from Snapfish.

My favorite line so far: about the guests arriving at a post-college housewarming party in the early '90s: "Hurricanes of entitlement, all swirl and noise and destruction, nothing at their centers" (p. 43))