Midwinter Christmas/Chanuka/Solstice/etc
| Welcome to the midwinter Christmas/Chanuka/Solstice/etc newsletter. In lieu of a blog, I am sending seasonal greetings to everyone who opens this, with much appreciation for being a subscriber and staying in touch over what has been a REALLY tough year. And to you all, whatever creed, religion, ethnicity or other intersections, I wish you health, ease, self-compassion and a loving time in this time of too much acrimony and hatred. We see out the year with the usual fare of book reviews, news, events, podcasts, research bites and writing news, and corny cartoons and jokes. Please do email me with any feedback, recommendations, ideas or just to say hello |
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A timely quote
The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own. Aldous Huxley |
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A Banksy: we need to listen to the children!!
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Ok so my presents .. 2 free downloads for subscribers 1) The introduction to the new edition of Nurturing Natures (To download either piece, if you are not subscribed, click below to subscribe first) |
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Ruth Feldmanhere is a fascinating paper by a great researcher Ruth Feldman about ‘The neurobiology of hatred’ |
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I was moved to be on this rally for Together with Humanity where people were speaking for peace, and even an Israeli man who lost his parents on October 7th and a Palestinian man who had lost most of his family, spoke on the same stage, alongside others including Archbishop Welby |
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some day it will happen we hope |
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Can we remain open to beauty when the world is in such turmoil, and not by defensively avoiding pain? See an article sent out by the inimitable Paul Gilbert that exhorts just that read here and on that theme…
Amazing Japanese winter scene, bamboo after snow in Kyoto |
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The bad xmas jokes keep coming!
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Upcoming talks or events |
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My aim in 2024 is to do less events, but below are a few planned
(and do though send in information about other events as I am less in the loop at the moment but like to advertise other organisation’s events) Courage in Trauma Work Event Link Early Years Conference Cornwall A 2 day conference for early years practitioners in Cornwall Working with Trauma related Attachment in Short-term work Event Link Resparking: Working courageously with trauma and neglect Event Link |
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A slightly forlorn fox in a frosty Tufnell park playing fields |
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A few blogs to enjoy |
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Why Nature is so good for our emotional and cognitive health .. we know this but a new year reminder .. read here
Pasco Fearon and attachment theory: A great interview where he bust some myths about attachment theory read here
Louis Weinstock: Pertinent for now, We Really Need to talk About Blame
David Morgan: Fake News: The Role of Suggestion in a Fast World read here
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Formats and Bookfunnel
Having tested the audio version via BookFunnel which seems to work, it is still available here and using this code for subscribers U2GU3NF at checkout gets it for 25% off, ie £4.50.I am still aiming to shortly release a cheaper version of the ebook formats on bookfunnel too, for Respark and also Affect and Emotion, and to offer signed copies of any of the books and send them out from my home (actually i can do that now for any physical books if anyone wants, just email me!) |
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A few novels and non-fiction (get links to the books by clicking on the pictures)
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Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: Loosely based on David Copperfield, I loved this book.. Great writing, fantastic dialogue, gripping stories, and an emotional but exciting and fulfilling journey and at times laugh-out-loud , and anyone who has worked with children who have been in social care, you will recognize such a lot here.
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The Fortune Men: Nadifa Mohamed: I recently became interested in Bute Town in Cardiff, a real ethnic melting pot, Windrush, Somalis, Jews etc and this novel is set there. Not completely easy, but it tells a beautiful moving if at times painful story, and in the process highlights the racism of the UK and how tough it has been for some many groups.
My interest in Bute Town, which Wales’ oldest multicultural community, arose as my daughter has been in a play for the National Theatre of Wales, about mourning, loss and life in Bute Town. It is musical, moving, fun, I saw it in Cardiff and it is also coming to brixton soon, I am going, check it out , its called Circle of Fifths and describes an amazing community .. details here
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Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Mayer: Possibly a bit leftfield, written by a psychoanalyst who explores here all kinds of phenomena that many dont or dont want to believe in. For example it describes accounts by eminent psychoanalysts such as Robert Stoller and also Patrick Casement of what seems to be mind-reading, and also looks at huge swathes of research about phenomena like ‘remote viewing’ and what used to be called ESP. Not for the ardent materialist but there is amazing stuff in here and worth at least engaging with
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The Years, Annie Ernaux: I thought this was stunning. Written by a Nobel prize winner whose work, I am ashamed to say, I have never read, it is an extraordinary memoir and narrative spanning the period between 1941 and 2006, it somehow is both highly personal and also the voice of a generation and of a period I loved, with stories infused by the intellectual life of the time. I couldn’t stop reading it, but then, I was brought up by the likes of Sartre and de Beauvoir and so i realise it might not be for everyone
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Improv Wisdom: Patricia Madson: Fun , but also serious. I have been feeling rather uncreative and thought this book, about the art of theatrical improvisation, might help me dare to try to be more creative again, and it did inspire me, I know not for everyone
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Psychoanalytic Books
I have tended to put only books I have recently read in the newsletter and most of the psychoanalysis and psychotherapy i read is not at all new .. Not sure if this is of interest but I thought i would put something I have been re-reading in each month. Bollas is one of my heroes, i have read so many of his books and I often come back to this, Forces of Destiny from 1996 which really influenced how i understand how deep psychoanalytic thinking can help people to find and embrace his version of the Winnicottian True Self and learn to express ones own ‘idiom’ as he calls it. It has and continues to affect how I think about my own and others’ lives
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Here’s a trailer to the Circle of Fifths Play (and nepotistic as always, you can spot my daughter playing trumpet). It is a great show
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This month an unusual poem and sticking with the theme of loss.
Morbid perhaps but, in keeping with some depressive tendencies, I often try to think about death and recently I was listening to an Upaya Zen podcast with Frank Ostaseski, who has so much experience with the dying and is a big hearted man. For anyone interested, I recommend this talk by him. In the talk he described how one day in the Zen Hospice in San Francisco he was in the kitchen reading a book called Japanese Death Poems.
A tough old lady from the streets, named Sono, who was there to die, asked him about the book, and he explained the tradition of Japanese monks who write on the day of their death a poem expressing the essential truth discovered in their life. He then read her a few of these poems.
Sono said she’d like to write her own, and did, and asked that it be pinned to her bedclothes when she died and be cremated with her. It is below, and an image of her, I hope uplifting not disturbing, and here also is one by Frank Ostaseski
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Sono’s Death Poem Don’t just stand there with your hair turning gray, |
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‘RESPARK’ is also available in all the formats below. |
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The other audible formats here and on Spotify and other platformsThe physical book and ebook is available from amazon or better, independent bookshops eg psychological therapy books and the reincarnated Karnac books here, yay! Please do leave a review anywhere you buy books, it really helps a lot |
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A few interesting podcasts Tommy Wood with Rangan Chatterjee: At a time of new year’s resolutions we all want to know about what it is safe to eat, how much exercise to do, how the risks of sugar, coffee, alcohol. well lots answered here by Wood, a really good researcher who i have followed for a while listen here |
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Yes its Christmas. Another icon gone, Shane McGowan, i remember pogoing to the Pogues in camden in the 1980’s when Cait O’Riordan was still the bass player , this song was envisaged to be sung with her, until she left after falling in love with Elvis Costello!
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A few research bites recently posted on X (twitter) (plenty more on the feed) |
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And finally … possibly the corniest joke of the year
My wife is pregnant. I asked her whether she wanted any dinner. She replied: “No thanks, I gestate.” |
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That’s it! Thanks for reading everyone |
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